HISTORICAL  C ELEB RATION 


// 


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jttcOlormtcfe  Cl^eological 

HISTORICAL  CELEBRATION 


ifKltCormitfe  tCljeoIoaical 
nntnarp 


HISTORICAL  CELEBRATION 

In  Recognition  of  the  Eightieth  Year  of  the  Origin  of  the 

Seminary,  the  Fiftieth  Year  of  its  Location  in  Chicago, 

and  the  One  Hundredth  Year  of  the  Birth  of 

CYRUS    H.  McCORMICK 

November  first  and  second, 
Nineteen  hundred  and  nine. 


Chicago,  Illinois 
1910 


foretPorD 

As  the  year  1909  approached,  the  Directors,  Trustees,  and 
Faculty  of  McCormick  Theological  Seminary  realized 
the  significance  of  this  special  date  to  the  history  of  the  institu- 
tion. The  year  marked  the  eightieth  anniversary  of  the  ori- 
gin of  the  Seminary,  the  fiftieth  year  of  its  location  in  Chicago, 
and  the  one-hundredth  year  of  the  birth  of  Cyrus  H.  McCor- 
mick, whose  name  it  bears. 

Accordingly  it  was  decided  to  have  an  historical  cele- 
bration which  should  properly  emphasize  these  three  events, 
and  the  following  program  was  planned : 

An  opening  address  on  the  life  and  character  of  Cyrus 
H.  McCormick. 

A  conference  concerning  the  future  work  of  the- 
ological seminaries. 

A  series  of  papers  discussing  the  relations  of  theo- 
logical seminaries  to  the  problems  of  the  pulpit,  of  the 
pastorate,  and  of  the  mission  fields. 

A  concluding  address  on  some  special  feature  of  the 
Christian  ministry. 

For  the  opening  address  President  W.  W.  Moore,  D.D., 
LL.D.,  of  Union  Theological  Seminary,  Richmond,  Vir- 
ginia, the  state  in  which  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  began  his  life, 
was  selected. 

With  the  thought  of  making  the  celebration  as  wide  as 
possible  in  its  Christian  fellowship,  an  invitation  to  address 

5 


jporetoorD 


the  Theological  Conference  was  sent  to  President  Augustus 
H.  Strong,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  the  Rochester  (Baptist)  The- 
ological Seminary,  to  Professor  Robert  W.  Rogers,  D.D., 
LL.D.;  of  the  Drew  (Methodist)  Theological  Seminary,  and 
to  Professor  Williston  Walker,  Ph.D.,  D.D.,  of  the  Yale 
(Congregational)  Divinity  School. 

Alumni  of  McCormick  Seminary  were  asked  to  treat  the 
relation  of  theological  seminaries  to  the  problems  of  the 
pulpit,  of  the  pastorate,  and  of  the  mission  fields.  The  prob- 
lems of  the  pulpit  were  assigned  to  the  Rev.  J.  Ross  Steven- 
son, D.D.,  of  the  Brown  Memorial  Presbyterian  Church, 
Baltimore,  Maryland,  who  once  had  held  the  chair  of  Church 
History  in  McCormick  Theological  Seminary.  The  prob- 
lems of  the  pastorate  were  assigned  to  the  Rev.  Edward  Yates 
Hill,  D.D.,  of  the  First  Presbyterian  Church  of  Philadelphia, 
Pennsylvania,  where  the  first  Presbytery  in  America  was 
formed,  and  the  first  Synod,  and  the  first  General  Assembly 
were  held.  The  problems  of  the  mission  fields  were  assigned 
to  the  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.D.,  LL.D.,  of  New 
York,  secretary  of  the  Board  of  Home  Missions,  moderator 
of  the  General  Assembly  in  1888. 

President  Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.D.,  LL.D.,  of  Princeton 
University,  was  asked  to  make  the  concluding  address. 

Invitations  to  attend  the  historical  celebration  as  thus 
planned  were  sent  to  theological  seminaries  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  and  of  other  churches,  to  colleges  that  con- 
tribute students  to  McCormick,  to  the  alumni,  and  to  many 
friends. 

The  Celebration  was  held  on  November  ist  and  2d,  1909. 
This  volume  embodies  the  papers  and  addresses  then  de- 

6 


foretoorli 


livered,  together  with  "The  Story  of  the  Seminary,"  pre- 
pared by  request  by  the  Rev.  Daniel  W.  Fisher,  D.  D., 
LL.  D.,  vice-president  of  the  Board  of  Directors. 

In  addition  to  the  exercises  described  in  this  volume  a 
luncheon  was  given  at  one  o'clock  on  November  2d,  in 
the  Virginia  Library,  for  the  Representatives,  Invited  Guests, 
Directors,  Trustees,  Alumni,  and  Faculty.  At  this  luncheon 
the  blessing  was  asked  by  President  Lowell  M.  McAfee, 
LL.  D.,  of  Park  College,  and  announcement  was  made  of  the 
greetings  received  from  the  various  educational  institutions. 
A  stone  from  the  foundation  of  the  building  in  which  the 
Seminary  was  originated  at  Hanover,  Indiana,  was  shown 
and  the  purpose  was  stated  to  incorporate  it  in  the  wall 
of  one  of  the  present  buildings. 

At  five  o'clock  of  that  same  day  President  and  Mrs. 
McClure  gave  a  reception  at  the  President's  house  to  the 
Representatives,  Invited  Guests,  Alumni,  Students,  and 
Friends. 


Contentji 


The  Story  of  the  Seminary. 

The  Rev.  Daniel  W.  Fisher,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.         .         .         .       n 

Prayer  at  the  Opening  Service  of  the  Celebration. 

The  Rev.  John  Balcom  Shaw,  D.  D.  .         .         .         ,       27 

Historical  Address  in  Appreciation  of  the  Life  and  Work 
OF  Cyrus  H.  McCormick. 
President  Walter  W.  Moore,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.         ,  .         .       31 

The  Ideals  of  the  Theological  Seminary  for  Usefulness 
IN  THE  Coming  Half  Century. 

President  A.  H.  Strong,  D.  D.,  LL.  D 65 

Professor  Robert  W.  Rogers,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.         .         .         .81 
Professor  Williston  Walker,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D 97 

Ministerial  Leadership. 

The  Rev.  J.  Ross  Stevenson,  D.  D.     .         .         .  .  -115 

The  Rev.  Edward  Yates  Hill,  D.  D.  .         .  .  .123 

The  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D.  .  .  .     145 

The  Ministry  and  the  Individual. 

President  Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D.         .         .         .163 


Cl^e  ^tor^  of  tl^e  ^tminatv 

BY  THE    REV.  DANIEL  W.  FISHER,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

THE  exact  spot  of  ground  where  McCormick  Theological 
Seminary  began  its  life  and  work  is  very  familiar  to 
me.  Between  the  southeast  door  of  the  Presbyterian  church 
in  the  village  of  Hanover,  and  the  eastern  limit  of  the  church 
yard,  where  formerly  there  was  a  gate  in  the  fence  now  re- 
moved, runs  a  beaten  path.  Over  this  I  have  walked  several 
thousand  times.  Not  more  than  a  half  dozen  steps  from  the 
church  door,  along  that  path,  on  its  north  side  is  a  slight 
depression  in  the  ground.  Just  there  is  the  southern  line  of 
the  space  occupied  by  the  small  log  cabin  where  the  first 
class  of  theologues  in  this  Seminary  entered  on  their  studies. 
That  occurred  early  in  1830.  In  1827,  Rev.  John  Finley 
Crowe,  the  Pastor  of  the  church,  had  started  an  advanced 
private  school  which  was  at  first  housed  in  his  own  dwelling. 
In  1829  this  school  was  incorporated  under  the  name  of 
Hanover  Academy;  and  for  its  use,  during  the  summer  that 
log  cabin  had  been  erected.  Several  years  before,  the 
general  locality  had  taken  the  name  of  Hanover,  in  honor  of 
the  wife  of  the  Rev.  Mr.  Searls,  Pastor  of  the  Presbyterian 
church  in  Madison,  who  gave  a  part  of  his  time  to  the  service 
of  the  church  already  organized  out  in  this  new  settlement. 
Mrs.  Searls  was  from  Hanover,  New  Hampshire,  the  seat  of 
Dartmouth  College;  and  the  people  showed  their  regard  for 
her  by  adopting  the  name  of  her  New  England  home  as  the 
designation  of  this  region.    The  entire  township  is  still 


^t€otmith  €l)eoIogicaI  ^eminarp 

called  Hanover.  But  even  in  1829,  within  the  clearing  then 
recently  made,  and  now  constituting  the  incorporated  limits 
of  the  village  of  Hanover,  there  were  only  three  or  four  dwell- 
ings scattered  about  in  the  edges  of  the  forest.  In  front  of 
the  Academy,  a  few  hundred  feet  away,  also  stood  a  rustic 
looking  stone  church  belonging  to  the  Presbyterians,  and  a 
school-house. 

How  did  it  happen  that  out  there  almost  in  the  woods, 
Hanover  at  that  early  period  became  the  birthplace,  first  of 
an  Academy,  and  then  of  a  Theological  Seminary,  and  of  a 
College?  The  visitor  who  stands  to-day  on  the  campus  of 
the  College  and  looks  out  on  that  wonderful  view  of  the  great 
river  and  its  setting  amid  the  hills  and  woods  and  ravines 
and  fields  might  suppose  that  the  scenery  had  much  to  do 
with  the  planting  of  these  schools  just  there;  and  possibly 
it  did  enter  as  an  influence.  Yet,  so  far  as  we  now  can 
ascertain  there  were  other  considerations  that  were  determi- 
native. The  institution  was  located,  not  out  on  the  point 
where  the  College  at  present  stands,  but  a  mile  away,  where 
there  is  nothing  in  the  outlook  specially  to  please  the  eye. 
However,  the  Ohio  river,  then  the  great  thoroughfare  be- 
tween the  East  and  the  West  and  South,  was  only  a  mile  dis- 
tant and  easily  accessible;  the  elevation  and  drainage  safe- 
guarded the  spot  from  the  malaria  once  so  common  in 
Indiana;  and  Madison,  at  that  era  by  all  odds  the  foremost 
town  in  the  young  State,  was  only  a  half  dozen  miles  distant. 
Yet  this  institution  would  not  have  come  into  existence  there 
if  it  had  not  been  for  the  character  of  the  people  of  the 
neighborhood.  They  were  mostly  Presbyterians  of  a  sturdy 
type,  many  of  whom  had  migrated  thither  by  way  of  Ken- 


€l|e  ^torp  of  rte  ^cminarp 


tucky,  and  not  a  few  of  them  because  they  preferred  to 
build  their  homes  in  a  free  State.  Two  men  stand  out  most 
conspicuously,  and  deserve  to  be  held  in  perpetual  remem- 
brance by  both  the  College  and  the  Seminary,  one  a  minister 
and  the  other  a  layman.  Put  Dr.  Crowe  and  Williamson 
Dunn  down  in  the  midst  of  any  such  a  community,  and  some- 
thing worth  while  could  scarcely  fail  of  accomplishment  for 
both  Church  and  State. 

In  a  general  way  it  may  be  said  that  the  Seminary  was 
born  of  a  revival.  In  1827  and  1828  a  great  wave  of  religious 
interest  and  power  swept  over  the  half  dozen  States  contiguous 
to  the  Ohio  river;  and  one  of  its  immediate  effects  was  to 
set  the  faces  of  a  larger  number  of  young  men  than  usual 
toward  the  ministry.  Hanover  Academy  participated  in 
the  revival;  and  in  the  summer  of  1829  it  was  found  that  out 
of  the  sixteen  students  in  attendance  thirteen  had  decided 
to  prepare  for  that  service.  The  authorities  of  the  Academy 
could  not  fail  to  see  the  need  of  a  theological  school,  more 
convenient  for  this  region  than  any  yet  established  by  the 
Presbyterian  Church;  and  they  initiated  a  movement  which 
in  its  next  stage  brought  the  project  before  the  Synod  of 
Indiana,  then  covering  the  States  of  Indiana,  Illinois,  and 
Missouri.  The  outcome  in  that  body  was  the  adoption  of  a 
resolution  to  take  the  Hanover  Academy  under  its  control, 
provided  that  it  be  allowed  to  establish  in  connection  with  it 
a  theological  department.  The  condition  was  promptly 
accepted,  and  the  Synod  elected  Rev.  Dr.  John  Matthews  of 
Shepherdstown,  Virginia,  to  the  Chair  of  Theology.  In 
December  he  arrived  upon  the  ground,  and  so  soon  as  a 
class  of  theologues  could  be  gathered,  he  began  the  work  for 

13 


0it€otmith  €f|eoIogxcal  ^eminarp 

which  he  had  been  chosen,  his  class  room  being  the  log  cabin 
in  which  the  Academy  was  then  still  conducted.  When  in 
January,  1833,  Hanover  College  received  its  charter,  though 
the  theological  school  continued  to  be  closely  connected,  it 
ceased  to  be  called  a  department  of  that  institution,  and  took 
the  name  of  "The  Indiana  Theological  Seminary." 

I  have  on  one  or  two  occasions  heard  some  doubt  hinted 
as  to  the  descent  of  McCormick  Theological  Seminary  from 
that  nascent  school;  but  for  such  doubt  there  is  no  warrant 
in  the  facts.  The  lineage  was  formally  recognized  in  the 
Circuit  Court  of  the  United  States  by  its  decree  concerning 
the  division  of  the  assets  of  the  New  Albany  Seminary.  Hal- 
sey's  History  leaves  no  room  for  question.  The  Hanover 
period  covers  a  total  of  about  ten  years,  and  during  it  the 
number  of  Professors  never  exceeded  two  at  any  one  time. 
The  entire  list  is  brief:  John  Matthews,  N.  W.  Cunningham, 
George  Bishop,  James  Wood,  names  which  the  Presbyterian 
Church  at  large,  and  this  Seminary  ought  never  to  allow  to 
sink  below  the  horizon  of  their  grateful  memory.  The  cat- 
alogue of  Hanover  College  reports  the  total  of  theological 
students  for  that  period  as  fifty-five;  while  the  catalogue  of 
the  New  Albany  Theological  Seminary  credits  it  with  only 
forty-five.  The  explanation  of  this  discrepancy  seems  to  be 
that  both  institutions  claimed  the  class  of  1840.  Be  the  ex- 
act number  what  it  may,  it  remains  true  that  in  that  decade 
of  its  infancy  this  little  theological  school  contributed  a  very 
valuable  addition  to  the  ministry  of  the  Presbyterian  Church. 
Two  men  constituted  the  first  class,  Robert  H.  Bishop,  Jr. 
and  Robert  C.  Caldwell;  and  thereby  they  occupy  the  place 
of  precedence  in  the  list  of  eighty-six  classes  which  have  gone 

14 


€f^e  ^totp  of  tt^t  ^eminarp 


out  from  this  institution.  Most  of  the  Hanover  period  of  the 
Seminary  antedates  my  own  nativity;  and  yet  several  of  those 
early  theologues  by  and  by  touched  my  own  life  so  directly 
that  this  must  be  my  excuse  for  mentioning  them  rather  than 
others.  The  Academy  at  Shade  Gap,  Pennsylvania,  where 
I  began  my  preparation  for  college,  was  founded  by  one  of 
them,  J.  Y.  McGinnes,  whose  early  death  in  the  midst  of 
a  work  of  exceptional  usefulness  was  long  lamented  in  all 
that  region.  In  the  Western  Theological  Seminary,  when 
in  my  day  as  a  student  we  wanted  a  man  of  ability  and 
culture  to  make  the  address  at  Commencement,  we  sent 
for  another  of  these  men,  Josiah  D.  Smith  of  Columbus, 
Ohio.  When  I  came  to  Hanover  College  as  its  President, 
one  of  my  chief  helpers  in  the  Board  of  Trustees  was  still 
another,  Joseph  G.  Monfort,  whose  large  services  to  the 
Church  will  long  in  the  future  continue  to  receive  grateful 
recognition.  One  of  the  Chairs  of  Hanover  College,  estab- 
lished under  my  administration  bears  the  name  of  a  fourth 
of  the  men  who  took  their  theological  training  in  this  early 
school,  James  A.  McKee,  who  gave  the  funds  for  its  endow- 
ment. 

The  second  stage  in  the  life  of  the  Seminary  specified  for 
recognition  in  the  recent  Historical  Celebration  is  "the  fif- 
tieth year  of  its  residence  in  Chicago."  Between  the  date, 
half  a  century  ago,  when  this  residence  began,  and  the  termi- 
nation of  its  previous  existence  at  Hanover,  lies  another 
period  of  about  nineteen  years,  of  which  seventeen  were 
spent  by  the  institution  at  New  Albany,  Indiana;  and  during 
two  years  more  it  was  in  transitu,  though  not  in  a  condition 
of  '"suspended  animation."     Why  was  it    removed  to   a 

IS 


0it€otmitk  CJjeoiogical  ^eminarp 

second  location,  only,  as  the  crow  flies,  some  thirty  miles 
away  from  Hanover,  and  as  heretofore  still  on  the  banks  of 
the  Ohio?  Up  to  that  time  the  institution  was  compara- 
tively foot  loose,  for  it  had  no  buildings  of  its  own,  and  no 
endowment,  and  legally  it  was  not  a  part  of  the  College. 
Considering  its  opportunities  it  had  done  a  work  for  which 
it  deserved  well  of  the  Church;  yet  it  had  not  grown  to  the 
proportions  needed  for  the  rapidly  increasing  population  of 
the  West  and  the  Southwest.  Chicago  and  the  States  of  the 
Northwest  were  still  in  embryo.  The  aspiration  of  the 
institution  was  to  provide  a  ministry  whose  field  of  labor 
would  embrace  all  that  vast  region  drained  by  the  rivers  emp- 
tying, on  either  side,  into  the  Ohio,  still  a  chief  thoroughfare 
for  travel  and  commerce.  There  was  also  more  or  less  of 
a  patriotic  sentiment  involved;  a  desire  to  do  something 
worth  while  in  checking  and  healing  the  alienation,  already 
becoming  threatening,  between  the  sections.  For  this  pur- 
pose, what  could  be  more  promising  than  to  bring  together 
from  both  the  North  and  the  South,  here  on  the  Border,  for 
close  fellowship  in  a  theological  school,  for  several  years, 
the  choicest  young  men  of  the  Church;  and  after  this  ac- 
quaintance, to  send  them  forth  to  preach  the  gospel  as  the 
message  of  good  will  in  every  part  of  the  land,  and  of  the 
world!  It  ought  not  to  be  thought  strange  that  under  such 
circumstances  and  with  such  aspirations  the  Seminary  clung 
to  the  banks  of  the  Ohio  for  twenty-seven  years.  As  to  the 
selection  of  New  Albany  rather  than  some  other  location,  it 
needs  to  be  borne  in  mind  that  it  was  already  a  prosperous 
little  city,  with  large  and  growing  business  interests,  and 
with  some  exceptionally  influential  and  consecrated  people 

i6 


CJ)e  ^totp  of  tl)e  ^eminatp 


in  the  ministry  and  membership  of  the  local  churches.  In 
full  sight  just  across  the  river,  at  the  head  of  navigation  for 
the  larger  steamers  also  was  Louisville,  then  already  promis- 
ing to  be  one  of  the  chief  cities  of  the  South.  When  in  addi- 
tion to  all  these  considerations,  Mr.  Ayers  made  an  offer 
that  if  the  Seminary  were  located  at  New  Albany  he  would 
give  for  its  endowment  and  equipment  what  for  those  days 
was  considered  a  large  sum  of  money,  on  certain  reasonable 
conditions,  there  were  only  a  few  who  questioned  the  wisdom 
of  the  decision  to  accept  his  proposal.  So,  the  transfer 
from  Hanover  was  made,  the  institution  changed  its  name 
to  "The  New  Albany  Theological  Seminary";  and  buildings 
adequate  for  the  lodging  of  the  students  and  for  the  work  of 
instruction  were  soon  afterwards  provided. 

It  must  be  frankly  conceded  that  in  its  new  location  the 
institution  was,  though  by  no  means  a  failure,  yet  a  dis- 
appointment to  its  supporters.  The  attendance  on  the 
average  was  a  little  larger  than  at  Hanover,  but  it  did  not 
show  any  sign  of  considerable  future  increase.  This  was 
largely  because  of  conditions  beyond  the  control  of  the  in- 
stitution. The  building  of  railroads  was  making  it  far 
easier  for  students  of  this  general  region  to  go  to  the  older 
and  better  equipped  Seminaries  in  the  East;  and  not  a  few 
were  taking  advantage  of  the  opportunity.  Especially  was 
the  Western  Theological  Seminary,  located  as  it  was  at 
Pittsburg,  at  the  gateway  to  all  the  regions  beyond  the  Alle- 
ghanies,  and  then  under  the  leadership  of  such  men  as  Dr. 
Plumer,  rising  into  such  size  and  conspicuousness  as  to  at- 
tract hither  many  students  from  the  West  and  the  South,  who 
but  for  this  might  have  been  drawn  to  New  Albany.     Nearer 

17 


;^cContiicft  Ctjeological  ^eminatp 

home,  besides  Lane  at  Cincinnati,  another  theological  institu- 
tion affiliated  with  the  "Old  School"  Presbyterian  Church, 
temporarily  there  competed  for  students.  At  first  the  Semin- 
ary at  New  Albany  maintained  its  hold  on  its  Southern  constit- 
uency; but  little  by  little  this  was  almost  wholly  lost;  partly 
for  the  general  reason  of  the  increasing  alienation  between 
the  two  sections  of  our  country,  and  partly  because  of  the 
competition  of  Danville  Theological  Seminary,  and  also  of 
prejudices  against  certain  of  the  Faculty  on  account  of  their 
attitude  on  the  impending  national  issues.  In  the  mean- 
while the  West  and  the  Northwest  were  rapidly  fiUing  with 
population,  and  it  was  becoming  more  and  more  evident 
that  in  order  that  the  Presbyterian  Church  might  overtake 
its  work  in  this  field,  it  ought  to  have  a  theological  school 
at  a  far  better  strategic  point  than  down  on  the  banks  of  the 
Ohio,  opposite  Louisville.  Thus,  a  second  removal  of  the 
institution  became  too  plainly  desirable  to  admit  of  question ; 
and  in  1857  it  was  decided  by  the  Directors,  with  the  assent 
of  the  Faculty,  that  the  necessary  steps  toward  it  should  be 
taken,  and  that  the  work  of  the  institution  should  be  tem- 
porarily suspended.  The  interregnum  thus  created  lasted 
until  the  third  removal,  this  time  to  Chicago,  was  effected. 
It  is  for  this  reason  that  in  the  General  Catalogue  no  class 
is  given  for  either  1857-58  or  for  1858-59. 

Even  to  the  ministers  and  membership  of  the  Presby- 
terian Church  of  the  present  day,  two  generations  later  than 
the  men  who  from  time  to  time  constituted  the  Faculty  of 
the  New  Albany  Seminary,  their  names  must  still  be  a  suffi- 
cient guaranty  for  the  superb  character  of  the  instruction 
given  by  them.     James  Wood,  E.  D.  Macmaster,  Thomas 

18 


€l|e  ^torp  of  tf^t  ^eminarp 

E.  Thomas,  Philip  Lindsley!  Any  theological  school  might 
well  be  proud  of  such  great  masters.  The  total  enrollment 
of  students  was  one  hundred  and  forty-seven.  It  may  seem 
an  invidious  distinction  to  choose  among  these  any  for  men- 
tion here.  We  must  not  forget  that  the  work  to  which  most 
of  the  men  who  went  out  from  the  institution  devoted  their 
lives  was  largely  that  of  pioneers  for  the  gospel;  and  that  al- 
though it  did  not  bring  them  to  the  attention  of  the  Church  or 
the  world  at  large,  there  are  hundreds  of  localities  where  they 
made  an  impress  for  good,  so  deep  and  lasting  that  any  man 
might  well  covet  this  rather  than  mere  reputation.  More 
than  half  of  my  life  has  been  spent  in  regions  so  far  removed 
from  the  scene  of  the  labors  of  these  men  that  I  am  not  as 
familiar  with  their  achievements  as  I  could  wish.  To  me 
three  of  them  loom  up  with  special  conspicuousness :  Jona- 
than Edwards,  Pastor,  President  of  Hanover  College,  and 
of  Washington  and  Jefferson  College,  and  Theological  Pro- 
fessor; W.  A.  P.  Martin,  Missionary  to  China,  President  of 
the  Imperial  College,  decorated  with  both  home  and  foreign 
honors  for  his  distinguished  services;  S.  F.  Scovel,  Pastor, 
President  of  Wooster  University,  Professor  in  the  same 
institution.  Besides  these  as  my  eye  runs  hastily  over  the 
classes  for  that  period  it  is  arrested  by  such  others  as  the  two 
Crowes,  Joseph  F.  Fenton,  Samuel  J.  Baird,  W.  W.  Colmery, 
T.  A.  Bracken,  George  F.  Whitworth,  Fauntleroy  Senour, 
R.  E.  Grundy,  John  M.  Worrall,  Robert  C.  Matthews, 
Claudius  B.  Martin,  Thomas  R.  Welch,  J.  B.  Garritt, 
E.  C.  Sickels,  E.  J.  Hamilton,  Robert  Irwin.  Yet  after 
this  enumeration  how  many  I  may  have  omitted  that  one 
better  informed  would  have  included! 

19 


;^c€ormicft  Cl)eoIogical  ^eminarp 

The  interregnum  between  the  spring  of  1857  and  the 
autumn  of  1859,  though  a  time  when  there  were  neither  stud- 
ents nor  Faculty,  nevertheless  was  one  of  the  most  crucial  ac- 
tivity in  the  history  of  the  Seminary.  During  this  period  the 
Synods  of  what  is  now  known  broadly  as  the  Middle  West 
were  made  sharers  in  the  management;  and  the  ultimate 
control  was  vested  in  the  General  Assembly.  It  was  this 
latter  body  that  elected  the  new  Faculty,  consisting  of  four 
entirely  new  men.  As  to  the  location  it  had  long  been  fore- 
seen by  thoughtful  men  that  Chicago  was  the  most  desirable, 
provided  that  suitable  provision  could  be  had  there  for  the 
institution.  When  an  offer  of  large  and  valuable  tracts  of 
land  within  the  limits  of  the  city  was  made;  and  when  Mr. 
McCormick  formally  proposed  that  under  certain  reasonable 
conditions  he  would  give  a  hundred  thousand  dollars  for 
endowment,  Chicago  in  the  vote  taken  in  the  General  Assem- 
bly, easily  won  over  Indianapolis,  its  only  competitor. 
A  change  of  name  again  was  a  necessity;  and  the  institution 
now  became  "The  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Northwest." 
Hopeful  of  large  prosperity  as  the  outlook  seemed  to  be,  the 
Seminary  nevertheless  immediately  entered  on  almost  a 
quarter  of  a  century  of  difficulties  which  all  the  while  hin- 
dered more  or  less  the  attendance  of  students  who  otherwise 
might  have  come  to  it,  and  even  jeopardized  its  existence 
at  certain  junctures.  As  to  these  difficulties  I  must  content 
myself  with  a  few  rather  colorless  and  general  statements; 
for  the  reason  that  details,  if  it  were  desirable  to  give  them 
here,  are  impracticable.  We  were  just  on  the  eve  of  our  Civil 
War,  and  the  questions  over  which  it  was  fought  deeply 


€l^e  ^totp  of  tl^e  g^eminarp 


affected  the  actions  of  men  as  to  many  other  matters  ecclesias- 
tical though  only  indirectly  involved,  ecclesiastical  not  except- 
ed. Antagonisms  that  were  perhaps  in  any  case  unavoidable 
took  on  additional  intensity.  It  is  easy  for  us  now  calmly 
to  read  about  the  troubles  of  those  days  concerning  this 
Seminary,  and  to  wonder  why  the  parties  did  not  quietly 
confer  together  and  after  a  comparison  of  views  agree 
as  to  the  best  decision  possible  under  the  circumstances. 
To  do  this  in  the  atmosphere  of  those  times  the  intelligent 
and  consecrated  men  who  took  sides  in  these  disputes  must 
have  been  greater  sages  and  saints  than  we  have  a  right  to 
expect  in  this  world.  One  thing  deserves  to  be  distinctly 
noted.  This  is  that  in  the  discussions  that  went  forward  in 
the  press  and  on  the  platform,  a  level  high  above  mere  per- 
sonal animosity  was  almost  uniformly  maintained.  At 
length  when  the  Civil  War  was  over  the  difficulties  of  the 
Seminary  so  far  as  they  were  intensified  by  that  struggle  died 
away,  like  a  storm  whose  clouds  are  disappearing  in  the 
distance.  When  a  little  later,  the  union  of  the  Old  and  the 
New  School  Churches  was  consummated,  some  new  ad- 
justments as  to  the  affairs  of  the  institution  became  necessary; 
and  in  connection  with  this,  an  effort  was  made  by  the  Gen- 
eral Assembly  to  heal  the  old  sores.  Progress  of  an  important 
kind  was  made,  especially  in  the  erection  of  additional 
buildings  on  the  campus,  and  by  a  considerable  increase  of 
endowment,  and  other  funds.  Nevertheless,  after  more  than 
twenty  years  of  residence  at  Chicago,  the  attendance  of  stu- 
dents still  was  not  at  all  as  large  as  might  reasonably  have 
been  expected;  and  the  general  situation  was  so  unsatis- 


0lt€otmith  €J)e0logical  J^emtnarp 

factory  that  the  Faculty  all  resigned  in  1881 ;  a  new  set  of 
men  were  chosen  to  fill  the  vacant  Chairs ;  and  a  substantial 
reorganization  of  the  institution  was  effected. 

Here  begins  an  era  of  large  prosperity,  now  running  over 
well  nigh  thirty  years.  It  was  in  1882  that  I  became  a 
Director,  and  in  this  office  I  have  ever  since  continued;  and 
I  as  to  this  period  write  as  one  who  has  the  advantage  of 
direct  personal  observation.  I  have  seen  the  vestiges  of  the 
old  controversies  disappear  so  completely  that  it  would  now 
be  difficult  to  discover  a  trace  of  them  in  the  working  of  the 
Seminary.  Some  of  the  Faculty  inaugurated  at  the  reorgan- 
ization still  remain  either  in  active  service  or  on  an  honor 
roll  of  retirement.  As  vacancies  in  the  Board  of  Directors 
and  in  the  Faculty  have  occurred  men  of  both  the  conserva- 
tive and  of  the  moderate  liberal,  not  radical,  type,  and  men 
always  loyal  to  the  faith  of  the  church,  have  been  called  to 
these  places  for  reasons  of  fitness  and  ability  alone.  I  have 
seen  the  Faculty  enlarged  until  no  less  than  twelve  are  on  the 
roll,  and  ten  of  these  are  in  active  service;  and  at  the  head  of 
this  body,  is  a  capable  President,  whose  function  it  is  to  give 
unity  and  wise  guidance  to  the  entire  administration.  I  have 
seen  two  costly  and  commodious  buildings  added  to  those 
previously  on  the  campus.  When  again  and  again  during 
this  long  period,  our  necessary  expenditures  have  exceeded 
our  regular  income,  sometimes  aggregating  tens  of  thousands 
of  dollars,  the  family  which  has  been  in  other  things  so  un- 
stinted in  their  generosity,  have  always  lifted  our  burden, 
and  done  this  as  if  it  were  a  privilege  to  them.  I  have  seen 
the  endowment  increased  a  round  million  dollars  at  one  time 
by  these  friends  and  the  total  assets  increased  to  almost  two 


€l)e  ^torp  of  tlje  ^cminarp 


millions  of  dollars.  I  have  seen  the  number  of  students,  in 
the  era  when  candidates  for  the  ministry  were  most  abundant, 
rise  considerably  above  two  hundred;  and  still  holding  well 
its  proportion  in  more  recent  years.  I  have  witnessed  the 
graduation  of  classes  falling  but  little  below  a  hundred  in 
their  total  enrollment.  I,  like  the  Presidents  of  many  other 
colleges,  have  sent  up  scores  of  our  alumni  here  to  be  still 
further  trained  for  great  and  useful  lives  in  the  ministry  of 
the  gospel,  and  then  to  be  scattered  far  and  wide  to  their  work 
in  our  own  country,  and  a  praiseworthy  proportion  of  them 
to  carry  the  gospel  to  the  unevangeHzed  nations.  Other 
men  in  the  struggling  days  of  the  Seminary  labored,  and  we 
are  entered  into  their  labors.  They  went  forth  bearing  pre- 
cious seed  which  they  watered  with  their  tears,  and  we  are 
rejoicing  over  the  harvest. 

Two  years  after  I  became  a  Director  of  the  Seminary,  Cyrus 
H.  McCormick  died,  and  my  personal  acquaintance  with  him 
was  thus  abbreviated.  Short  as  it  was,  it  revealed  to  me 
certain  sides  of  his  character  which  were  a  surprise  to  me.  I 
knew  very  well  that  he  was  one  of  the  great  inventors  of  modem 
times,  and  as  such  an  exceptional  benefactor  of  the  human  race; 
that  he  was  a  captain  of  industry  seldom  equalled;  that  he  was 
a  princely  giver  to  the  Seminary  and  other  objects  of  Hke  de- 
sert; and  that  along  with  this,  he  was  a  man  of  strong  convic- 
tions as  to  truth  and  duty,  and  of  unswerving  fidelity  to  them. 
It  was  of  another  side  of  his  character  that  I  got  a  view  in  my 
brief  personal  acquaintance.  It  will  not,  I  trust,  be  regarded 
as  a  breach  of  propriety  for  me  to  tell  that  as  I  sat  as  guest  at 
his  table,  I  happened  through  long  residence  in  Virginia,  to 
use  a  word  somewhat   local  to  that  State  and  the  South. 

23 


;jW:c€otmtck  €J)eoIo0tcal  ^eititnarp 

Turning  to  me  as  if  I  had  brought  some  welcome  message 
from  his  old  home  in  the  "Valley  of  Virginia,"  he  exclaimed 
with  unmistakable  feeling  "Oh  how  much  good  it  does  me 
to  hear  you  use  that  word!"  After  that  I  was  less  surprised 
when  in  conversation  something  that  was  uttered  touched  his 
emotions,  and  the  tears  broke  from  his  eyes  and  rolled  down 
over  his  cheeks.  He  was  a  man  with  a  great  heart  as  well 
as  a  master  mind  and  will. 

This  Seminary  would  be  recreant  to  its  plainest  duty  if 
it  did  not  honor  Mr.  McCormick  in  every  legitimate  way  at 
its  command.  It  was  he  that  took  it  by  the  hand  when  it  was 
feeble  and  ready  to  die,  brought  it  to  its  new  and  permanent 
home,  housed  it  at  first  plainly  but  eventually  in  its  present 
costly  buildings,  provided  for  it  large  endowment,  and  re- 
sponded with  generous  gifts  for  all  its  needs;  and  the  benefi- 
cence which  he  thus  inaugurated  has  by  his  family  grown 
into  ever  increasing  magnitude.  Those  who  have  been  en- 
trusted with  the  management  of  the  institution  did  well  when 
they  began  to  honor  this  man  by  calling  one  of  the  Chairs 
"The  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  Professorship  of  Didactic  and 
Polemic  Theology";  and  when  later  they  named  one  of  the 
great  buildings  on  the  campus,  "McCormick  Hall;"  and 
when,  wholly  of  their  own  impulse,  they  caused  the  name 
of  the  institution  to  be  changed  to  "The  McCormick 
Theological  Seminary."  To  these  marks  of  respect  they 
have  now  most  commendably  added  this  formal  celebration 
of  Mr.  McCormick's  birth,  in  connection  with  the  founding 
of  the  Seminary  at  Hanover,  and  its  permanent  residence  at 
Chicago  begun  half  a  century  ago. 


24 


In  Appreciation  of  the  Life  and  Work  of 

CYRUS  H.  Mccormick 

Fourth  Presbyterian  Church,  Monday  Evening,  November  First, 
Nineteen  Hundred  and  Nine,  at  Eight  o 'Clock. 

ORDER    OF   EXERCISES 

THE    REV.    SAMUEL    J.   NICCOLLS,   D.  D,    LL.  D., 

President  of  the  Board  of  Directors 

Presiding 

Organ  Prelude. 

Hymn.     "Ye  Servants  of  God." 

Scripture  Lesson .      .      .      .       The  Rev.  John  Timothy  Stone,  D.  D., 

Fourth  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago 

Romans  viii.  1-17 

Solo Dr.  William  F.  Larkin 

"The  Earth  is  the  Lord's."  —  Lansing. 

Prayer The  Rev.  John  Bal com  Shaw,  D.  D., 

Second  Presbyterian  Church,  Chicago 

Hymn.     "How  Firm  a  Foundation." 

Address President  Walter  W.  Moore,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Union  Theological  Seminary,  Richmond,  Virginia 

Hymn.     "For  All  the  Saints." 

Benediction.      .      .      .    The  Rev.  Samuel  J.  Niccolls,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Second  Presbyterian  Church,  St.  Louis 


-5 


o 


BY  THE  REV.  JOHN  BALCOM  SHAW,  D.  D. 

GOD,  the  author  and  inspiration  of  all  noble  lives  and 
all  high  and  true  institutions,  who  of  Thy  great  mercy 
and  out  of  Thy  supreme  wisdom  dost  ordain  men  and  agen- 
cies alike  to  serve  and  uplift  humanity,  and  to  enrich  and 
enlarge  the  Kingdom  of  Heaven  in  the  earth,  for  the  historic 
Seminary  in  whose  name  and  for  whose  honor  we  gather  to- 
night, we  give  Thee  united  and  earnest  thanks.  We  bless 
Thee  for  her  long  and  worthy  history,  for  her  gracious  and 
ever-widening  service  to  the  Church,  for  her  reverent  and 
sane  scholarship,  for  her  devotion  to  the  truth  as  it  is  in 
Jesus,  for  her  open-mindedness  and  yet  warm-  and  single- 
heartedness,  for  the  goodly  succession  of  able  and  godly 
men  who  have  filled  her  chairs  of  learning,  and  for  that 
still  larger  group,  who,  having  received  her  touch  and  having 
passed  out  from  beneath  her  benediction,  are  extending 
her  influence  and  by  that  means  magnifying  Jesus  Christ 
in  all  parts  of  the  world. 

Renew  and  enlarge  Thy  favor  unto  her  at  this  time,  we 
beseech  of  Thee.  Give  fresh  ordination  to  her  well-beloved 
president  and  new  consecration  unto  all  her  professors. 
Send  down  upon  her  students  now  pursuing  their  prepara- 
tion for  the  Christian  ministry  within  her  walls  a  double 
portion  of  the  spirit  of  understanding  and  love,  and  let  there 
come  to  her  entire  alumni,  wherever  stationed,  a  mighty 
anointing  from  Thy  right  hand,  and  an  inspiring  impact 

27 


0it€ntmxtk  €f)eoloffical  ^eminatp 

from  ours,  as  though  great  currents  of  cheer  and  fellowship 
now  leapt  from  this  gathering  into  their  hearts  and  lives. 

Altogether,  vouchsafe  unto  this  institution  larger  and 
holier  success  in  time  to  come  than  even  through  the  remark- 
able years  that  are  gone,  and  cause  her  to  be  an  increasing 
blessing  to  the  world,  and  more  and  more  an  honor  to  Him 
whom  she  delights  to  acknowledge  as  her  divine  Master 
and  Head. 

More  especially  do  we  praise  Thee  at  this  time  for  the 
life  and  labor  of  Thy  servant,  the  founder  of  this  Seminary, 
who  built  her  walls  and  buttresses  so  securely  and  so  well 
that  "he  being  dead  yet  speaketh."  For  his  strength  and 
sturdiness  and  steadfastness  of  character,  for  his  love  for 
the  Church  of  Christ,  for  his  enriching  service  to  humanity, 
his  devotion  to  sound  doctrine  and  his  patronage  of  high 
learning,  his  spirit  of  integrity,  and  his  fidelity  to  the  trust 
which  God  gave  him  to  discharge,  we  raise  to  Thee  our  glad 
and  enthusiastic  thanksgiving. 

Be  pleased  to  bless  his  heritage,  as  now  they  keep  this 
significant  and  sacred  anniversary,  with  unwonted  grace 
and  tenderness.  As  they  revert  with  us  to  this  useful  life 
may  they  experience  more  than  the  heartening  and  hallowing 
blessing  of  a  memory,  sweet  and  beautiful  though  it  be. 
May  the  chrism  of  his  spirit  come  upon  them  and,  baptized 
in  some  large  and  holy  sense  for  their  dead,  may  they  devote 
their  lives  to  the  ideals  and  aims  that  guided  his  life  and  be 
accounted  of  Thee  worthy  to  stand  in  his  place  and  perpet- 
uate his  work.  Let  fall  upon  all  of  us  here  assembled,  O 
God,  the  healthful  dew  of  Thy  blessing  and  make  this  to 
be  in  each  life  a  covenanting  time  in  which  we  pledge  our- 

28 


^rapa 


selves,  our  belongings  and  our  endowments,  our  zeal  and 
our  service,  to  the  work  of  Thy  Kingdom.  May  we  love 
the  Church  because  Thou  didst  love  it  so  dearly  as  to  give 
Thy  Son  for  its  purchase.  May  we  dedicate  ourselves 
to  it  because  Christ  lay  down  His  life  for  it.  May  we  re- 
solve to  work  in  it  and  for  it  and  through  it  because  it  is 
the  chiefmost  channel  of  the  Spirit's  activity  among  men. 

Finally,  we  beseech  Thee  to  hear  us  in  behalf  of  the 
Church  Universal  in  all  the  earth;  that  she  may  have  the 
sure  guidance  and  governance  of  the  Holy  Spirit  and  worth- 
ily fulfill  her  appointed  mission  in  the  world.  Hear  us 
also  as  we  pray  for  our  nation  and  commonwealth  and  city, 
for  the  fallen,  the  impenitent  and  those  that  are  out  of  the 
way,  and  bring  speedily  forward,  we  implore  of  Thee,  the 
Day  of  our  Lord's  Consummation,  when  His  gospel  shall 
have  made  world-wide  conquest  and  His  rule  shall  be  set 
up  among  all  men.  And  unto  Thee,  eternal  and  ever 
blessed  God,  our  Father,  our  Saviour,  our  Sanctifier  and 
Comforter,  shall  be  glory  in  the  Church  by  Christ  Jesus, 
throughout  all  ages,  world  without  end.     Amen. 


J^fjStortcal  atitiresijS  in  appteciatton  of  tt^t 
life  anH  oaorfi  of  Ctrujs  i^.  jttcCormicfe 

BY  PRESIDENT  WALTER  W.  MOORE,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

TWO  events  in  the  history  of  our  country  stand  out  above 
all  others  in  their  importance  and  far-reaching  effects. 
One  was  the  achievement  of  our  national  independence  by 
the  thirteen  colonies  on  the  Atlantic  slope,  and  the  other  was 
the  conquest  of  the  vast  territory  which  stretches  across  the 
continent    from   the   Alleghany    Mountains   to   the    Pacific 

Ocean. 

The   Scotch-Irish  Stock 

In  the  accomplishment  of  both  of  these  stupendous  tasks, 
which  have  made  America  what  she  is  to-day,  the  providence 
of  God  assigned  the  brunt  of  the  battle  to  that  bold  and  hardy 
and  God-fearing  race  commonly  known  as  the  Scotch-Irish, 
who,  coming  to  the  New  World  to  secure  the  religious  liberty 
denied  them  in  the  Old,  pushed  through  the  already  settled 
coast  lands  and  took  possession  of  the  forest  covered  foot-hills 
and  long  fertile  valleys  of  the  Appalachians.  There  "  they  took 
root  and  flourished,  stretching  in  a  broad  belt  from  north  to 
south,  a  shield  of  sinewy  men  thrust  in  between  the  people  of 
the  seaboard  and  the  red  warriors  of  the  wilderness."^  These 
were  the  men  who  before  any  others  declared  for  American 
independence,  and  who  from  the  beginning  to  the  end  con- 
stituted the  backbone  of  the  Revolution.  "  They  gave  Wash- 
ington thirty-nine  of  his  generals,  three  out  of  four  members 

*  Theodore  Roosevelt :   The  Winning  of  the  West. 

31 


jHcCormicft  €l)cologicaI  J^eminarp 

of  his  cabinet,  and  three  out  of  five  judges  of  the  first  Supreme 
Court. " 

These,  too,  were  the  men  who  led  the  way  across  the  moun- 
tains to  the  great  interior,  "the  pioneers  of  our  people  in  their 
march  westward,  the  vanguard  of  the  army  of  fighting  set- 
tlers, who  with  axe  and  rifle  won  their  way  from  the  Allegha- 
nies  to  the  Rio  Grande  and  the  Pacific,  "^  who  by  battle  and  by 
bargain,  overcame  and  displaced  Indians,  French,  and  Span- 
iards alike,  and  gave  to  the  American  people  the  vast  inland 
empire  of  which  your  own  great  city  is  now  the  metropolis. 

Capping  the  Work  of  the  Nation-Makers 

It  is  to  the  "Presbyterian  Irish"  then,  as  Mr.  Roosevelt 
calls  them,  to  whom  we  are  chiefly  indebted  for  the  winning 
of  the  west.  It  was  they  who  furnished  most  of  the  leaders 
as  well  as  the  rank  and  file  of  that  victorious  army  of  conti- 
nental conquest,  such  as  James  Robertson,  who,  with  John 
Sevier,  tamed  the  rugged  wilderness  of  East  Tennessee,  and 
solved  there  the  problem  of  self-government,  giving  to  the 
settlers  the  first  written  constitution  ever  adopted  by  a  com- 
munity composed  of  American-bom  freemen;  Andrew  Lewis, 
the  leader  of  the  backwoods  hosts  in  their  first  great  victory 
over  the  Northwestern  Indians;  William  Campbell,  their 
commander  in  their  first  great  victory  over  the  British  at 
King's  Mountain;^  Andrew  Jackson,  who  won  at  New  Orleans 
the  most  successful  land  battle  ever  fought  by  American  arms; 
David  Crockett,  hunter,  humorist,  and  hero,  who  died  in  the 
Alamo  with  his  back  to  the  wall  and  a  semicircle  of  dead  Mex- 

'Idem.  ndem,  pp.  134,  135. 

32 


J^i^tortcal  3llitite^^ 


icans  around  him  felled  by  his  swinging  rifle;  and  Sam  Hous- 
ton, winner  of  the  independence  of  Texas  and  first  president  of 
that  republic.  These,  and  many  other  leaders  in  our  winning 
of  the  west,  were  furnished  by  the  Scotch-Irish,  to  say  nothing 
of  their  afterwards  putting  five  Presidents  in  the  White  House. 
But,  while  it  was  these  robust  and  resolute  pioneers  of  the 
Scotch-Irish  stock  who  scaled  the  Alleghanies,  subdued  the 
wilderness,  subjugated  the  savages,  displaced  the  ahens,  and 
gave  to  English-speaking  Americans  this  mighty  domain 
which  stretches  from  Canada  to  Mexico  and  from  the  Appala- 
chians to  the  Pacific,  yet  this  wide  and  fair  and  fertile  domain 
which  is  now  occupied  by  thirty-one  populous  and  prosperous 
commonwealths  could  never  have  been  what  it  is  to-day,  at 
least  on  its  present  prodigious  scale,  a  region  of  fruitful  farms 
and  thrifty  towns  and  opulent  cities,  creating  new  wealth 
at  the  rate  of  sixteen  billions  a  year,  a  continent  of  fabulous 
possessions  and  possibilities,  the  home  of  fifty  miUions  of 
busy  and  happy  people,  the  granary  of  a  world,  God's  great- 
est answer  to  the  universal  prayer,  "  Give  us  this  day  our  daily 
bread, "  all  this,  I  say,  could  not  have  been  had  it  not  been 
for  the  genius  and  character  and  work  of  still  another  man  of 
that  same  Scotch-Irish  strain.  That  man  was  Cyrus  H.  Mc- 
Cormick.  It  was  his  invention  of  a  machine  for  cutting  grain 
by  horse-power  which  crowned  all  the  other  achievements 
of  the  sterling  stock  from  which  he  sprang,  and  without 
which  all  the  other  exploits  of  those  strong  nation-makers, 
splendid  as  they  are,  would  have  been  incomplete.  For  it 
was  the  reaper  which  flung  open  the  mighty  empire  of  the 
northwest,  by  making  possible  its  enormous  crops  of  grain, 
and  thus  stimulating  the  construction  of  thousands  of  miles 

33 


;^cCDrmicft  CfteoloBXcal  ^eminarp 

of  railway,  and  peopling  half  a  continent  with  prosperous 
settlers. 

As  long  ago  as  1859  the  great  lawyer,  Reverdy  Johnson, 
said:  "The  McCormick  reaper  has  already  contributed 
an  annual  income  to  the  whole  country  of  fifty-five  millions 
of  dollars  at  least,  which  must  increase  through  all  time." 
And  in  1861  Edwin  M.  Stanton  showed  upon  a  map  how 
''McCormick's  invention  in  Virginia  had  carried  permanent 
civiHzation  westward  more  than  fifty  miles  a  year."  But 
even  such  statements  as  these,  remarkable  as  they  are,  do 
not  measure  the  value  of  his  invention  in  lessening  human 
toil,  supplying  mankind  with  cheap  and  abundant  food, 
increasing  the  world's  wealth  and  promoting  the  advance  of 
material  civilization.  For  they  take  account  only  of  North 
America,  whereas  the  reaper  has  benefited  in  the  same  way 
South  America,  New  Zealand,  AustraHa,  Europe,  Asia 
and  Africa.  "To-day,"  as  Herbert  Casson  says,  "the 
sun  never  sets  and  the  season  never  closes  for  American 
harvesters.  They  are  reaping  the  fields  of  Argentina  in 
January,  Upper  Egypt  in  February,  East  India  in  March, 
Mexico  in  April,  China  in  May,  Spain  in  June,  Iowa  in 
July,  Canada  in  August,  Sweden  in  September,  Norway  in 
October,  South  Africa  in  November,  and  Burma  in  Decem- 
ber. It  is  always  harvest  somewhere"  and  the  music  of  the 
reaper  follows  the  ripple  of  the  ripened  grain  all  round  the 
world.  The  harvester  has  not  only  made  America  the  best 
fed  nation  on  the  globe  but  has  enabled  the  whole  world 
"to  take  dinner  at  one  long  table." 


34 


i^i^torical  Sltitire^^ 


Rank  as   Epoch-Maker 

It  has  been  said  that  for  six  thousand  years,  with  the 
exception  of  the  rulers  and  their  retinues,  the  human  race 
was  hungry.  To  the  masses  of  mankind  Hfe  was  an  agonized 
struggle  for  food.  Even  within  the  memory  of  men  now  living 
there  were  bread-riots  in  New  York  City,  and  starving  men 
fell  on  the  streets  of  Boston  and  Philadelphia.  But  with 
the  advent  of  the  reaper  life  ceased  to  be  merely  a  battle  for 
bread.  With  the  world  growing  wheat  at  the  yearly  rate  of 
ten  bushels  a  family,  as  this  marvellous  invention  has  enabled 
it  to  do,  the  gaunt  spectre  of  famine  has  vanished  forever. 
With  our  eighty-five  millions  of  Americans  eating  twelve 
thousand  million  loaves  of  bread  a  year  and  yet  sending  a 
thousand  million  dollars  worth  of  food  to  other  nations,  the 
pinched  children  of  want  need  never  again  suffer  the  pangs 
of  hunger.  By  cheapening  the  bread  of  the  toiling  millions 
this  Virginia  inventor  "has  moved  all  the  civilized  peoples 
up  out  of  the  bread  line"  and  has  opened  to  the  laborers 
in  field  and  forge,  in  mine  and  mill,  the  possibilities  of  a 
higher  life.  "The  Man  with  the  Hoe,"  the  stoHd  drudge, 
''brother  to  the  ox,"  has  at  last  been  freed  from  the  all- 
absorbing  struggle  for  mere  existence  and  given  some  op- 
portunity for  mental  culture  and  social  recreation  and  the 
refining  amenities  of  the  home. 

It  is  evident  therefore  even  from  this  brief  preview  of 
what  he  accomplished,  that  the  man  whose  life  and  work  we 
commemorate  to-night  was  not  merely  one  of  the  world's  great 
inventors  and  captains  of  industry,  but  an  epoch-maker  of 
the  first  magnitude,  the  creator  of  an  economic  revolution, 

35 


0lt€otmxdi  Cfjeological  ^eminatp 

the  greatest  promoter  of  agricultural  development  that  ever 
lived,  and  one  of  the  supreme  benefactors  of  the  human  race. 
It  would  be  incongruous  and  unseemly  to  use  the  language 
of  exaggeration  v^hen  speaking  of  a  man  so  genuine  as  Mr. 
McCormick,  to  whom  anything  fulsome  was  always  dis- 
tasteful, and  I  beg  leave  to  say  that  in  this  estimate  of  the 
value  of  his  services  to  mankind  I  have  endeavored  to  weigh 
my  words  and  to  refrain  from  any  overstatement,  and  that 
after  a  careful  study  of  his  life  I  am  prepared  to  prove  that 
the  position  I  have  claimed  for  him,  pre-eminent  as  it  is,  is 
fully  justified  by  the  facts  of  his  career  and  the  results  of 

his  work. 

The   Old  Home 

"Rockbridge  County  (in  Virginia)  has  given  birth  to  a 
remarkable  number  of  distinguished  men.  Among  them 
have  been  soldiers  in  all  the  wars  of  the  United  States, 
judges  of  both  state  and  federal  courts,  attorneys-general  of 
Virginia  and  of  other  states,  representatives  in  state  legisla- 
tures and  in  congress,  celebrated  ministers  of  the  gospel, 
and  missionaries  to  foreign  lands.  This  same  county  has 
given  a  general-in-chief  and  president  to  the  republic  of 
Texas,  a  United  States  minister  to  France,  Russia,  and  Aus- 
tria, governors  of  Georgia,  Mississippi,  Louisiana,  Texas, 
Tennessee,  and  West  Virginia,  while  eight  United  States 
senators  were  bom  within  a  radius  of  six  miles  of  Lexington 
(the  county  seat).  This  is  a  record  which,  as  Prof.  Latane 
has  said,  may  well  challenge  comparison  with  any  other 
county  in  the  land.  But  the  one  Rockbridge  name  that  has 
gone  round  the  world,  that  is  known  to-day  in  every  civilized 
land,  is  that  of  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  the  inventor  of  the  reap- 

36 


i$momal  aititire^^ 


er.  In  every  country  of  Europe,  in  Asiatic  Russia,  in  Persia, 
in  Australia,  in  South  America,  and  in  South  Africa,  is 
heard  the  click  of  his  reaper  and  the  whir  of  his  binder."* 
Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  was  born  February  15,  1809,  at 
the  old  homestead.  Walnut  Grove,  midway  between  Lexing- 
ton and  Staunton,  being  the  eldest  of  eight  children,  six  of 
whom  lived  to  grow  up.  His  parents,  Robert  and  Mary  Ann 
Hall  McCormick,  held  an  influential  position  among  the 
people  of  the  Valley,  both  being  of  high  intelligence  and 
marked  force  of  character,  devout,  thrifty,  and  well  to  do,  and 
they  made  for  their  children  a  comfortable  and  happy  home, 
teaching  them  habits  of  industry  and  self-reliance,  and  train- 
ing them  up  in  the  nurture  and  admonition  of  the  Lord. 
There  was  no  coddHng.  There  were  even  touches  of  Spartan 
severity  in  the  training  of  the  lad  whose  life  was  destined 
to  be  one  of  stern  conflict  with  innumerable  difficulties  and 
with  active  and  relentless  opposition.  He  was  often  roused 
at  five  o'clock  in  the  morning  to  work  in  the  fields.  He 
went  barefooted,  as  boys  of  his  age  ought  to  do.  He  sat 
on  a  slab-bench  in  the  little  log  school  house.  He  learned 
to  read  from  the  book  of  Genesis.  His  other  text-books 
were  Murray's  Grammar,  Dilworth's  Arithmetic,  Webster's 
Spelling-book,  and  the  Shorter  Catechism.  On  Sundays 
he  listened  earnestly  to  strong  preaching  in  New  Providence 
Church  and  sang  with  delight  the  great  hymns  of  the  ages, 
for  he  was  ever  a  lover  of  music  and  ever  a  deeply  religious 
nature.  The  words  and  melodies  of  those  sweet  old  hymns 
remained  with  him  throughout  life,  sang  in  his  heart  during 

^Professor  J.  H.  Latane:  Bulletin  of  Washington  and  Lee  University, 
July,  1909   p.  6. 

37 


0it€otmxth  €l)eologicaI  ^cminarp 

all  the  stress  of  his  stalwart  years,  and  sustained  and  cheered 
him  even  down  to  the  end.  As  a  result  of  this  old-fashioned, 
wholesome,  character-making,  Presbyterian  training,  the 
key  notes  of  which  were  industry,  honesty,  and  religion,  he 
carried  with  him  through  life  a  rare  capacity  for  work,  a 
dominating  sense  of  duty,  a  clear  and  reverent  and  happy 
faith,  a  quiet  scorn  of  pretense  and  ostentation,  and  a  passion- 
ate love  for  justice  and  truth.  In  other  ways,  too,  heredity 
and  environment  played  their  usual  important  part  in  the 
making  of  his  character  and  the  development  of  his  gifts. 
He  inherited  from  his  father  his  genius  for  invention  and 
from  his  mother  his  skill  in  practical  affairs. 

Robert  McCormick  was  a  man  of  unusual  business  acu- 
men and  enterprise  and  acquired  a  large  estate,  i,8oo  acres 
in  all,  consisting  of  four  adjoining  farms,  on  three  of  which 
he  operated  successfully  saw  mills  and  on  two  of  them  flour 
mills.  But  he  was  more  than  a  substantial  farmer  and  man 
of  affairs.  He  was  a  reader,  being  specially  fond  of  history 
and  astronomy.  He  had  an  imagination.  Naturally,  there- 
fore, he  gave  much  attention  to  the  mechanical  side  of  farm 
life  and  the  problem  of  labor-saving  machinery,  and  ac- 
quired considerable  local  fame  as  an  inventor.  In  the  work- 
shop on  his  farm  he  fashioned  an  ingenious  hemp-brake, 
operated  by  horse-power,  a  clover  sheller,  a  blacksmith's 
bellows,  a  hydraulic  machine,  a  threshing  machine,  and  a 
hillside  plow.  The  subject  to  which  he  gave  most  thought, 
however,  was  a  machine  for  the  cutting  of  grain.  But  here 
he  missed  the  way  entirely,  and  in  1831,  after  various  ex- 
periments extending  over  some  twenty  years,  he  gave  up  the 


38 


i^i^torical  3ltibre^^ 


project  as  hopeless.     It  was  reserved  for  the  son  to  succeed 
where  the  father  had  failed. 

The  Young  Inventor 

He  had  already  shown  that  he  had  inherited  his  father's 
inventive  talent.  While  still  a  lad  he  had  one  morning  as- 
tonished his  teacher  by  bringing  to  school  an  elaborate  map  of 
the  world,  showing  the  two  hemispheres  side  by  side,  which  he 
had  drawn  upon  paper  in  ink,  and  then  mounted  by  pasting 
the  paper  on  linen,  and  hanging  the  whole  on  two  varnished 
rollers.^  Such  aids  in  the  school  room  are  common  enough 
now,  but  that  a  mere  boy  should  produce  such  a  thing  then 
showed  clearly  that  he  possessed  the  true  inventor's  power 
of  striking  out  a  path  for  himself.  When  only  fifteen  years 
old  he  had  made  a  grain  cradle  suited  to  his  boyish  strength, 
which  embodied  a  distinct  improvement  over  any  other  form 
of  that  implement,  and  had  swung  it  over  many  a  broad 
acre  of  wheat,  keeping  pace  with  the  full  grown  hands,  all 
unconscious  of  the  fact  that  he  was  destined  to  release 
miUions  of  his  fellowmen  from  the  severe  toil  of  which  he 
was  then  having  a  practical  experience.®  At  the  same  early 
age  he,  too,  had  invented  a  hillside  plow  for  throwing  alter- 
nate furrows  on  the  lower  side,  and  a  little  later  a  self- 
sharpening,  horizontal  plow.  When  at  eighteen  he  studied 
the  profession  of  surveying  he  made  a  quadrant  for  his  own 
use  which  is  still  preserved,  and  is  one  of  many  witnesses  to 
the  accuracy  and  thoroughness  of  his  workmanship.    He  had 

^  Herbert  N.  Casson:    Everybody's  Magazine,  17,  p.  761. 
^  Memorial  Volume  of  Cyrus  H.  McCormick,  p.  5. 


39 


^c€otxnxth  Cfteological  J^emmatp 

already  made  an  improvement  on  Robert  McCormick's 
machine  for  breaking  and  cleaning  hemp.  For  years  he 
had  seen  his  baffled  father  at  work  on  the  mysterious  reaper; 
and  in  the  same  year  that  the  elder  McCormick  abandoned 
the  task  in  despair,  the  younger  inventor,  as  though  fired 
to  the  supreme  effort  of  his  genius  by  the  silent  challenge  of 
the  discredited  reaper  standing  outside  the  shop  door,  re- 
jected decisively  his  father's  model,  adopted  an  entirely 
different  principle,  and  in  a  few  months,  after  much  patient 
brooding  over  his  new  conception  and  many  ingenious 
efforts  at  combining  the  various  parts,  he  solved  triumphant- 
ly the  problem  of  the  centuries. 

The  First  Reaper 

The  machine  which  he  constructed,  every  part  of  which, 
both  in  wood  and  iron,  he  fashioned  with  his  own  hands, 
consisted  of  first,  a  reciprocating  knife  with  a  serrated  edge 
for  shearing  off  the  stalks;  second,  a  platform  to  receive  the 
falling  grain,  flexibly  affixed  so  as  to  accommodate  itself 
readily  to  the  irregularities  of  the  surface;  third,  a  horizontal 
and  adjustable  reel  to  sweep  the  standing  grain  towards  the 
blade  and  to  deHver  the  severed  stalks  parallel  upon  the  plat- 
form, in  a  swath  ready  to  be  raked  off  and  bound;  and  fourth, 
a  divider,  serving  to  separate  the  grain  to  be  cut  from  that 
to  be  left  standing. 

This  first  machine,  therefore,  crude  as  it  was  in  construc- 
tion, being  built  by  hand  in  a  plantation  shop,  nevertheless 
embodied  all  four  of  the  cardinal  features  which  all  subse- 
quent attempts  have  shown  to  be  indispensable  to  a  success- 
ful reaper.     Having  created  the  true  type,  the  inventor  him- 

40 


i^i^totical  3lDtite^^ 


self  never  departed  from  it,  and  in  conformity  with  that  type 
all  other  successful  harvesters  have  since  been  made.  "  De- 
spite all  subsequent  invention,  and  it  has  been  lavish,  no  one 
has  contrived  a  successful  substitute  for  McCormick's  orig- 
inal plan.  From  it  has  proceeded  in  unbroken  succession, 
and  with  remarkable  adherence  to  the  primary  arrangement, 
although  subsequently  enriched  with  many  refinements  in 
details  and  supplemental  improvements,  the  reaper  that 
has  taken  and  still  holds  possession  of  the  markets  of  the 
world.  "^ 

In  the  summer  of  1831,  then,  late  in  the  season,  after 
laboring  hard  to  complete  his  machine  in  time  for  the  harvest 
of  that  year,  Cyrus  H.  McCormick  hitched  a  horse  to  his 
new  invention  and  drove  it  clattering  into  a  small  patch  of 
wheat  on  his  father's  farm,  which  at  his  request  had  been 
left  standing,  for  the  first  test  of  its  powers.  The  revolving 
reel  swept  the  yellow  grain  against  the  blade  and  in  a  moment 
more  it  lay  in  a  golden  swath  upon  the  platform,  from  which 
it  was  raked  off  by  a  young  laborer  named  John  Cash. 
That  was  the  first  grain  ever  successfully  cut  anywhere  in 
the  world  otherwise  than  by  manual  labor. 

Several  days  later,  after  making  certain  improvements  in 
the  reel  and  the  divider,  the  young  inventor  gave  a  pubhc 
exhibition  of  his  machine  at  Steele's  Tavern,  a  neighboring 
village,  where  with  two  horses  to  the  reaper,  he  cut  six  acres 
of  oats  in  a  single  afternoon,  a  feat  equal  to  the  work  of 
six  laborers  with  scythes.  He  had  opened  a  new  era  in  the 
history  of  agriculture. 

The  next  year,  1832,  he  gave  a  public  exhibition  near  Lex- 

'  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites:    Cyrus  Hall  McCormick  and  the  Reaper. 

41 


iHcCormicft  Ctjeological  ^eminarp 

ington,  eighteen  miles  to  the  south  of  his  home,  which  was 
witnessed  by  fully  a  hundred  people.  The  field  was  hilly, 
and  the  machine,  not  having  yet  found  itself,  at  first  worked 
badly,  sluing  as  it  moved,  and  cutting  the  grain  irregularly. 
There  is  a  story,  that  the  owner  of  the  field,  seeing  this, 
rushed  up  to  the  inventor  and  shouted,  "Here!  this  won't  do. 
Stop  your  horses.  Your  machine  is  rattling  the  heads  off  my 
wheat!"  and  that  various  bystanders  bluntly  pronounced  it 
a  humbug,  one  of  them  exclaiming,  "  Give  me  the  old  cradle 
yet,  boys!"  It  was  a  disheartening  moment,  but  just  at 
this  juncture  one  of  the  spectators,  the  Hon.  William  Taylor, 
a  man  of  commanding  appearance  and  a  citizen  of  note, 
who  had  been  watching  the  work  with  keen  interest,  came 
forward  and  said,  "  Pull  down  the  fence  and  cross  over  into 
my  field,  young  man.  I'll  give  you  a  fair  chance  to  try  your 
machine."  This  offer  was  promptly  accepted,  the  reaper 
was  driven  into  Taylor's  field,  which  was  not  so  hilly,  and 
again  cut  six  acres  of  grain  in  less  than  half  a  day. 

Thus  it  was  that  at  twenty-two  years  of  age  this  young 
inventor,  on  a  secluded  farm  in  Virginia,  constructed  the 
first  successful  mechanical  reaper.  It  was  crude,  no  doubt, 
as  all  inventions  are  at  first,  but  it  was  a  reaper  that  reaped, 
and  it  included  every  fundamental  element  of  all  the  prac- 
tical harvesters  since  constructed,  and  laid  the  lines  on  which 
all  subsequent  invention  has  had  to  move. 

Manufacturing  the  Machines  in  Virginia 

Though  he  had  mastered  the  essential  principles  of  a 
reaper  and  embodied  them  in  a  machine  that  would  actually 
cut  grain,  he  did  not  at  once  apply  for  a  patent,  but  with  the 

42 


I^i^totical  ^btire^^ 


thoroughness  characteristic  of  the  man  he  "subjected  his 
machine  to  repeated  tests  during  three  successive  harvest 
seasons  under  a  variety  of  conditions  and  with  different 
grain,  and  took  out  his  patent  (June  21,  1834)  only  after 
having  fully  vindicated  and  exhibited  its  practical  value. "® 

Even  then  he  was  not  ready  to  put  his  reaper  on  the  mar- 
ket, for  as  he  himself  afterwards  said,  he  would  not  "attempt 
sales  either  of  machines  or  rights  to  manufacture  until  sat- 
isfied that  the  reaper  would  succeed  well  in  the  great  variety 
of  situations  in  which  it  was  necessary  to  operate."  "Thus 
season  by  season,  from  1834  to  1839,  the  inventor  patiently 
carried  on  his  trials,  personally  manufacturing  his  several 
experimental  machines  in  the  blacksmith  shop  at  Walnut 
Grove.  This  historical  building  can  still  be  seen  upon  the 
old  farm,  preserved  by  his  widow  and  children  as  the  birth- 
place^ of  the  mechanical  reaper."  Some  weeks  ago  I  stood 
within  this  quaint  old  shop,  and  noting  its  primitive  arrange- 
ments and  appliances,  wondered,  as  hundreds  before  me 
have  done,  at  what  this  youth  had  accomplished  with  the 
limited  resources  at  his  command. 

The  two  things  he  most  needed  were  money  and  cheaper 
iron.  So  "he  decided  to  build  a  furnace  and  make  his  own 
iron.  His  father  and  a  neighbor  joined  him  in  the  enter- 
prise. They  built  the  furnace,  made  the  iron,  and  had  taken 
the  first  steps  toward  success,"  when  the  financial  crash  of 
1837  wrecked  the  business  and  plunged  them  into  an  abyss 
of  debt.     Cyrus  McCormick  gave  up  everything  he  owned 

*  Herbert  N.  Casson:   Everybody's  Magazine,  17,  pp.  759,  760. 
'  Reuben  Gold  Thwaites:     Cyrus  Hall  McCormick   and    the  Reaper, 
p.  243- 

43 


;^c€ontiicft  €{)eoIogical  ^cminarp 

to  the  creditors,  and  he  and  the  rest  of  the  family  ''slaved  for 
five  years  to  save  the  homestead  from  the  auctioneer."  In 
1839  he  began  in  earnest  the  manufacture  and  sale  of  the 
reaper  in  company  with  his  father  and  his  two  brothers, 
William  and  Leander.  The  problem  was  one  of  extreme 
difiiculty.  He  was  without  capital.  There  were  no  rail- 
roads. All  the  material  had  to  be  hauled  overland.  "The 
sickles  were  made  forty  miles  away,  the  blades,  six  feet  in 
length,  being  transported  on  horseback.  In  this  manner 
the  work  was  carried  on  in  the  old  blacksmith  shop  at  Wal- 
nut Grove,  the  first  two  machines  being  sold  in  1840;  two 
others  in  1841  (at  a  hundred  dollars  each),  seven  in  1842, 
twenty-nine  in  1843,  and  fifty  in  each  of  the  years  1844  and 
1845."  The  first  consignment  sent  to  the  west,  in  1844, 
was  taken  in  wagons  from  Walnut  Grove  over  the  mountains 
to  Scottsville,  a  distance  of  some  sixty  miles,  then  down  the 
James  River  canal  to  Richmond,  thence  by  sea  to  New 
Orleans,  and  then  up  the  Mississippi  and  Ohio  rivers  to 
Cincinnati. 

The  Move  to  the  West 

This  order  from  the  west  for  seven  machines  revealed 
to  Mr.  McCormick,  who  was  now  a  stalwart  man  of  thirty- 
six,  his  great  opportunity,  and  he  was  quick  to  seize  it.  In 
the  fall  of  the  same  year  (1844),  with  $300  in  his  belt,  he  set 
out  on  horseback  for  the  west,  for  he  saw  plainly  that  the 
great  interior  with  its  wide,  flat  and  fertile  prairies  was  the 
natural  home  of  the  harvester.  "In  that  vast  land-ocean, 
with  few  laborers  and  an  infinity  of  acres,  the  reaper  was 
as  indispensable  as  the  plow.     To  reap  even  one  of  these  new 

44 


I^i^torical  3lDtite^i6f 


states  by  hand  would  require  the  whole  working  population 
of  the  country.  "^'^ 

In  your  own  state,  where  he  was  afterwards  to  make  his 
permanent  home,  a  sight  awaited  him  which  fired  his  zeal 
to  fever  heat.  "  We  saw  hogs  and  cattle  feeding  in  the  autumn 
wheat  fields,  which  could  not  be  reaped  for  lack  of  laborers. 
Five  million  bushels  of  wheat  had  grown  and  ripened,  enough 
to  empty  the  horn  of  plenty  into  every  farmer's  home.  Men, 
women  and  children  toiled  day  and  night  to  gather  in  the 
yellow  food.  But  the  short  harvest  season  rushed  past  so 
quickly  that  tons  of  it  lay  rotting  under  the  hoofs  of  cattle. 
.  .  .  The  sight  of  the  trampled  wheat  goaded  McCormick 
almost  into  a  frenzy  of  activity.  "^^ 

On  he  rode  through  Michigan,  Wisconsin,  Iowa,  Mis- 
souri, Ohio  and  New  York,  looking  everywhere  for  manufac- 
turers who  would  build  his  machines.  At  Brockport,  New 
York,  on  the  Erie  Canal,  he  found  two  men  who  appreciated 
his  invention  and  agreed  to  build  a  hundred  machines,  a 
decision  by  which  both  of  them  eventually  became  inde- 
pendently rich.^^ 

In  the  first  two  years  after  leaving  Virginia  he  sold  240 

reapers.     By   1847   a  Cincinnati  branch  was  turning  out 

machines  under  the  superintendence  of  his  brother  Leander, 

and  others  were  being  constructed  in  Chicago  on  a  royalty 

basis. 

Establishment  at  Chicago 

But  the  work  was  unsatisfactory.     He  was  involved  in 

many  troubles  because  of  bad  iron,  poor  workmanship  and 

^°  Herbert  N.  Casson:    Everybody's  Magazine,  17,  p.  762. 
"  Idem. 
"  Idem. 

45 


j^cCormicft  Cfteological  ^eminarp 

unreliable  manufacturers.  So  in  1847  "he  cut  the  Gordian 
knot  by  building  a  factory  of  his  own  at  Chicago."  The 
place  was  then  but  little  more  than  a  country  town  built  in  a 
swamp,  but  he  clearly  foresaw  its  future  pre-eminence  as  the 
connecting  link  between  the  great  lakes  and  the  great  west, 
and  he  saw  at  once  that  this  little  town  of  ten  thousand  peo- 
ple, ugly  and  forlorn  though  it  was,  was  the  place  where  he 
could  best  assemble  the  materials, — steel,  iron  and  wood — 
for  the  making  of  his  reapers,  and  also  the  place  from 
which  he  could  best  ship  the  finished  machines  both  east  and 
west,  and  thus  it  was  that  Chicago  acquired  her  most  illus- 
trious citizen. 

The  year  after  his  arrival  his  patent  expired,  and  although 
it  was  only  eight  years  since  he  had  put  his  first  machine  on  the 
market,  and  although  it  was  acknowledged  that  his  invention 
had  conferred  incalculable  benefits  upon  the  race  and  enor- 
mously increased  the  wealth  of  the  nation.  Congress  refused 
to  grant  him  just  and  deserved  protection  by  an  extension  of 
the  patent,  and  persisted  in  the  refusal  through  a  four-year 
contest  at  Washington,  waged  by  the  ablest  lawyers  in  the 
land.  Thus  the  basic  principles  of  his  reaper  were  thrown 
open  to  the  public,  and  immediately  a  host  of  competitors 
sprang  up,  flooding  the  market  with  machines  in  which  his 
ideas  had  been  incorporated.  But  Cyrus  McCormick  was 
an  unconquerable  man.  He  had  an  indomitable  will  and 
a  deathless  tenacity  of  purpose.  Though  smarting  with  a 
sense  of  the  injustice  done  him,  he  faced  his  rivals  single 
handed  —  Athanasius  contra  mundum  —  and  determined 
to  win  by  the  sheer  superiority  of  his  product.  And  win  he 
did.     Perfecting  his  mechanism  year  after  year,  by  unceasing 

46 


i^i^totical  atitite^^ 


experiments  and  continual  improvements,  and  giving  a 
written  guarantee  with  every  machine  he  sold,  he  kept  his 
reaper  in  the  lead.  How  great  his  achievement  was  maybe 
seen  fiom  the  fact  that  of  more  than  two  hundred  har- 
vester companies  that  took  the  field  only  ten  survive  to-day. 
From  the  day  he  set  foot  in  your  city  he  prospered  in 
spite  of  innumerable  difficulties.  By  i860  the  Chicago  works 
were  producing  four  thousand  reapers  in  a  single  year,  50,000 
of  them  in  all  were  clicking  in  American  wheat  fields,  "  doing 
the  work  of  350,000  men,  saving  $4,000,000  in  wages,  and 
cramming  the  barns  with  50,000,000  bushels  of  grain." 
For  years  he  had  struggled  with  the  strength  of  a  Titan  to 
overcome  mechanical  difficulties  and  the  obstacles  of  nature, 
to  vanquish  indifference  and  prejudice,  and  to  beat  down 
unjust  opposition  in  the  courts,  in  Congress  and  in  the  busi- 
ness world,  and  now  at  last  he  was  out  on  the  open  highway 
to  boundless  success.  Great  toils,  and  great  trials  as  well 
as  great  triumphs  still  awaited  him,  but  the  clouds  had  parted 
and  his  path  was  sunlit.  And  along  with  fortune  Fame  had 
come. 

Introduction    of    the    Reaper    into    Europe 

The  reaper  had  been  brought  to  the  attention  of  the 
British  public  at  the  World's  Fair  in  London,  in  185 1.  At 
first  it  was  the  subject  of  some  ridicule;  the  London  Times 
called  it  "a  cross  between  an  Astley  (circus)  chariot,  a 
wheelbarrow,  and  a  flying  machine. "  But  in  a  few  weeks, 
when  it  was  put  into  a  grain  field  and  given  an  actual  trial, 
and  when  its  instant  success  was  greeted  with  a  burst  of 
cheers  from  the  crowd,  and  when  the  inventor  was  given 

47 


jmcCoirmicft  Ctjeological  ^eminarp 

"not  only  a  First  Prize,  but  a  Council  Medal,  such  as  was 
usually  awarded  only  to  Kings  and  Governments,"  "The 
Thunderer"  changed  front  completely  and  admitted  that 
the  McCormick  reaper  was  equal  in  value  to  the  entire  cost 
of  the  exhibition.  William  H.  Seward  spoke  of  it  as  a  nation- 
al triumph,  saying,  "  No  General  or  Consul  drawn  in  a  char- 
iot through  the  streets  of  Rome  by  order  of  the  Senate  ever 
conferred  upon  mankind  benefits  so  great  as  he  who  thus 
vindicated  the  genius  of  our  own  country  at  the  World's 
Exposition  of  Art  in  the  MetropoHs  of  the  British  Empire. " 
At  the  Paris  Exposition  in  1855  his  reaper  received  the  gold 
medal  of  honor  as  "  the  type  after  which  all  others  are  made." 
Eight  years  later,  after  a  field  contest  at  Hamburg,  with 
dozens  of  other  manufacturers,  all  making  machines  more  or 
less  like  his,  the  United  States  Commissioner  cabled  to  New 
York,  "McCormick  has  thrashed  all  nations  and  walked 
off  with  the  Gold  Medal."  At  the  Paris  exposition  of  1867 
he  was  decorated  by  Napoleon  the  Third  with  the  Cross 
of  the  Legion  of  Honor.  How  significant  the  contrast,  as 
Mr.  Casson  notes,  when  the  last  emperor  of  France  fastened 
this  badge  of  the  Order  of  Merit  upon  the  breast  of  the  man 
who  "  had  built  up  a  new  empire  of  commerce  that  will  last 
as  long  as  the  human  race  shall  eat  bread."  Other  Euro- 
pean triumphs  followed,  and  in  1878,  when  he  was  called 
to  Paris  for  the  third  time  to  receive  the  Grand  Prize  of 
the  Exposition,  he  was  elected  a  corresponding  member 
of  the  French  Academy  of  Sciences,  "as  having  done  more 
for  the  cause  of  agriculture  than  any  other  living  man."^^ 

^^  Herbert  N.  Casson:    Everybody's  Magazine,  17,  p.  764. 

48 


i^i^torical  antire^^ 


Effects  of  the  Invention 

I  have  already  referred  to  the  beneficent  effect  of  Mr. 
McCormick's  invention  in  extending  the  wheat  growing  area 
of  the  world.  So  long  as  the  sickle  and  the  cradle  were  the 
only  means  of  reaping,  the  production  of  grain,  which  is 
man's  most  important  food,  was  subject  to  rigid  limitations. 
The  difficulty  was  aggravated  in  America  by  the  scarcity  of 
farm  laborers  in  the  West.  Ripe  wheat  will  not  wait.  The 
harvest  season  is  brief.  The  crop  must  be  garnered  within 
a  period  of  ten  days.  A  man  with  a  sickle  can  cut  about  five 
acres  a  day  and  it  is  back-breaking  toil.  This  area  was  con- 
siderably enlarged  of  course  by  the  introduction  of  the  cradle. 
But  the  mechanical  reaper,  drawn  by  horses,  leveling  the 
grain  in  mighty  swathes,  gathering  it  in  with  giant  grasp, 
and  tossing  out  the  bound-up  sheaves,  has  increased  the 
capacity  of  the  human  harvester  to  fifteen  acres  a  day  instead 
of  five,  besides  freeing  him  from  the  hard  labor  of  wielding 
the  sickle  or  the  cradle,  and  straightening  his  weary  back, 
and  seating  him  comfortably  on  the  machine  as  the  driver 
of  the  team.  The  gathering  of  every  bushel  of  wheat  used 
to  require  three  hours  of  a  man's  time.  ''In  seventy-six 
years  the  reaper  has  reduced  the  time-price  of  harvesting 
wheat  to  ten  minutes  a  bushel. "  To  the  reaper  therefore  we 
are  indebted  for  that  mighty  river  of  wheat  which  now  flows 
from  the  west,  turning  the  wheels  of  14,000  flour  mills,  and 
giving  to  the  millions  good  bread  at  low  prices. 


49 


j^cContiicfe  €ljeoIagicaI  ^eminarp 


By-Products  of  the  Reaper 

Along  that  life-giving  stream  scores  of  rich  cities  have 
sprung  up  like  magic,  a  network  of  railways  has  criss-crossed 
the  country,  huge  fleets  of  whalebacks  have  covered  the  lakes, 
and  hundreds  of  gigantic  factories  have  been  established  for 
the  making  of  all  manner  of  farming  implements, — for  the 
reaper  gave  a  mighty  stimulus  to  agricultural  invention,  and 
in  its  wake  there  followed  inevitably  a  multitude  of  other 
labor-saving  devices  for  the  sowing  and  cultivation  and  gath- 
ering of  crops  of  every  variety,  mowers,  tedders,  rakes, 
balers,  self-binders  for  corn  and  rice  as  well  as  wheat,  corn 
pluckers  shellers  and  grinders,  grain-drills,  harrows  and 
cultivators,  involving  also  of  course  an  enormously  increased 
output  of  wood  and  ore  from  the  forests  and  the  mines. 

One  of  the  most  important  of  the  indirect  effects  of  Mr. 
McCormick's  invention  was  its  contribution  to  the  preserva- 
tion of  the  Union  as  the  outcome  of  the  conflict  between  the 
states.  "During  the  Civil  War  the  reaper  was  doing  the 
work  of  a  million  men  in  the  grain  fields  of  the  North. "  In 
1861  Edwin  M.  Stanton  said:  "The  reaper  is  to  the  North 
what  slavery  is  to  the  South.  By  taking  the  places  of  regi- 
ments of  young  men  in  the  western  harvest  fields,  it  releases 
them  to  do  battle  for  the  Union  at  the  front,  and  at  the  same 
time  keeps  up  the  supply  of  bread  for  the  nation  and  the 
nation's  armies.  Thus  without  McCormick's  invention 
I  fear  the  North  could  not  win,  and  the  Union  would  be  dis- 
membered."  There  was  an  enormous  draught  of  recruits 
from  the  rural  districts  —  Mr.  Lincoln  called  out  every  third 
man  —  yet    the   crops,    instead    of    decreasing,    increased. 

50 


i^i^torical  atilite^^ 


Europeans  could  hardly  believe  it,  when  told  that  the  North 
was  supporting  a  vast  army  and  yet  was  "selling  enough 
grain  to  feed  35,000,000  people  and  sending  three  times  as 
much  grain  to  England  as  we  had  ever  sent  before." 

Patriot  and  Peacemaker 

This  contribution  of  the  reaper  to  the  preservation  of 
the  Union  was  an  effect  of  his  invention  which  of  course  Mr. 
McCormick  did  not  foresee,  though  the  preservation  of  the 
Union  was  a  thing  which  he  desired  with  all  his  soul.  Born 
and  reared  in  the  South,  yet  living  for  years  in  the  North, 
he  understood  the  standpoint  of  both  and  his  views  of  se- 
cession and  slavery  were  those  of  an  unsectional  patriot  and 
a  statesman.  A  northern  writer  has  said  with  truth  that 
"No  other  man  of  his  day  either  in  or  out  of  public  office 
was  so  free  from  local  prejudices  and  so  intensely  national 
in  his  beliefs  and  sympathies. "  ^^  He  did  not  want  the  Union 
to  be  broken  by  secession,  but  on  the  other  hand  he  did  not 
want  the  Constitution  to  be  destroyed  by  federal  reformers. 
He  wanted  the  South  to  be  freed  from  the  incubus  of  slavery 
but  he  did  not  want  it  done  by  violence  and  wrong  and  in 
a  way  that  would  pour  upon  the  nation  a  cataract  of  calam- 
ities. He  had  himself  forged  a  machine  that  could  do  the 
work  of  thousands  of  slaves  and  that  was  certain  to  prevent 
the  introduction  of  negro  labor  into  the  wheat  states  of  the 
west.  He  wanted  the  institution  of  slavery  abolished  but  he 
deprecated  the  impatience  which,  refusing  to  abide  gradual 
and  peaceable  emancipation,  the  only  natural,  true  and 
safe  solution,  plunged  the  country  into  war.     Before  hostili- 

^*  Herbert  N.  Casson:  The  Interior,  February  8,  1909. 

51 


;^c€ormxtft  Cl^eological  ^eminarp 

ties  actually  began,  he  strove  with  all  his  might  to  make  the 
wranghng  partisans  listen  to  reason,  and  even  after  the  war 
was  at  its  height  he  proposed  a  plan,  endorsed  by  Horace 
Greeley,  for  stopping  the  conflict  and  restoring  peace.  But 
the  plan  failed,  the  madness  continued,  and  the  war  was 
fought  to  the  bitter  end. 

To  the  overpowered  and  impoverished  South  he  was  one 
of  the  first  of  the  magnanimous  men  of  the  North  to  stretch 
out  a  friendly  hand,  but  unfortunately  all  men  in  the  North 
are  not  magnanimous  any  more  than  all  men  in  the  South, 
and  because  he  gave  help  to  prostrate  institutions  in  his 
native  state,  this  great-hearted  patriot  who  loved  both  North 
and  South  and  who  had  labored  with  giant  strength  to  pre- 
serve the  Union  in  a  rational  way,  was  actually  accused  of 
disloyalty  to  the  Union.  He  disposed  of  these  charges  with 
his  customary  vigor  and  conclusiveness  and  held  steadily  on 
his  lofty  and  beneficent  course. 

When  politics  invaded  the  courts  of  his  church  and  her 
chief  benefactors  were  proscribed  and  men  were  deposed 
from  the  boards  of  management  of  her  institutions  and  others 
put  in  their  places  on  purely  political  and  party  grounds, 
he  faithfully  pointed  out  to  the  church  her  error  and  recalled 
her  to  the  spirit  of  her  Lord  in  these  noble  words:  "When 
are  we  to  look  for  the  return  of  brotherly  love  and  Christian 
fellowship,  so  long  as  those  who  aspire  to  fill  the  high  places 
of  the  church  indulge  in  such  wrath  and  bitterness?  Now 
that  the  great  conflict  of  the  Civil  War  is  past,  and  its  issues 
settled,  religion  and  patriotism  alike  require  the  exercise 
of  mutual  forbearance,  and  the  pursuit  of  those  things  which 
tend  to  peace." 

52 


i^ii^torical  aiDlire^^ 


Christian  and  Philanthropist 

Amid  all  the  exacting  labors  of  his  life  Mr.  McCormick, 
like  Henry  Van  Dyke's  peace-seeker,  always  took  time  to 
look  up  at  the  stars.  And  therefore  great  as  his  influence 
was  upon  the  material  interests  of  mankind,  his  influence 
upon  the  higher  interests  of  the  race  was  greater  still.  He 
did  not  think  more  of  machines  than  of  souls.  For  fifty 
years  he  was  a  consistent,  earnest,  fruitful  member  of  the 
Presbyterian  Church,  and  from  the  earliest  days  of  his 
prosperity  to  the  end  of  his  honored  life,  he  was  the  large- 
hearted  and  open-handed  friend  of  educational  and  religious 
institutions,  ever  ready  to  help  them  with  his  sympathy, 
his  prayers,  his  counsel,  and  his  means. 

He  never  ceased  to  love  his  native  state.  "He  never 
grew  too  busy  or  too  famous  to  remember  with  gratitude  the 
days  and  scenes  out  of  which  he  was  ushered  into  the  world 
of  action."  In  his  inaugural  address  as  president  of  the 
Virginia  Society  of  Chicago,  he  said:  "If  I  forget  thee,  O 
Jerusalem,  let  my  right  hand  forget  her  cumning.  .  .  .  Vir- 
ginia, "  he  continued,  "  is  the  scene  of  all  our  most  sacred  and 
cherished  memories.  There  stood  the  old  home.  There 
flowed  the  mountain  stream.  There  bubbled  the  spring 
at  which  we  quenched  our  youthful  thirst.  There  were  the 
friends  of  our  childhood,  now  widely  scattered  or  dead." 

It  is  easy  for  the  public  to  mistake  the  nature  of  a  man 
whose  life  has  had  to  be  one  long  battle.  It  was  perhaps  not 
unnatural  for  some  to  think  of  this  massive  and  unbendable 
Scotch-Irishman  as  hard-fibered  and  imperious  and  devoid 
of  sentiment.     But  that  was  only  one  side.     We  get  a  glimpse 

53 


Pit€ov\mtk  Cfteological  ^eminarp 

of  the  other  in  the  earthquakes  of  laughter,  with  which  at 
times  his  great  frame  was  shaken,  and  in  the  upspringing 
of  tears  at  sight  of  blue  mountains,  reminding  him  of  his 
boyhood  home;  and  in  his  devotion  to  the  memory  of  his 
mother.  One  day  in  his  later  life  when  speaking  of  flowers 
he  said,  "I  love  the  old-fashioned  pinks  because  they  grew 
in  my  mother's  garden  in  old  Virginia."  There  were  many 
beautiful  and  tender  things  within  a  man  who  could  say  that. 
And  one  of  those  beautiful  and  tender  things  was  his  abiding 
affection  for  his  native  state.  Two  of  her  venerable  and 
useful  institutions  held  specially  warm  places  in  his  heart: 
Washington  and  Lee  University,  in  his  native  county,  and 
Union  Theological  Seminary,  in  Richmond.  It  is  well 
known  that  he  gave  to  the  former  a  handsome  sum  for  the 
establishment  of  a  chair  of  Physics,  and  that  in  1866,  when 
our  Seminary  in  Virginia  seemed  doomed  because  of  finan- 
cial losses  by  the  war,  he  came  to  her  rescue  with  a  noble 
gift  for  the  endowment  of  the  professorship  of  Old  Testament 
Interpretation.  Had  it  not  been  for  his  timely  help  in  those 
dark  days,  Union  Seminary  would  not  have  been  able  to  do 
for  the  church  the  great  work  she  has  been  doing  for  the 
last  forty  years  in  the  furnishing  of  so  large  a  proportion  of 
our  ministers  and  missionaries. 

McCoRMiCK  Seminary 

Of  course  his  chief  work  on  behalf  of  Christian  education 
and  the  spread  of  the  gospel  was  his  endowment  of  the  great 
school  in  Chicago  which  bears  his  name.  His  interest  in 
this  institution  rested  on  deep  conviction. 

As  one  of  your  own  former  professors  has  said:     "He 

54 


i^i^toricai  atJtire^^ 


was  not  only  a  Presbyterian,  but  he  was  also  a  believer  in  the 
theology  of  the  Westminster  Confession  of  Faith;  and  it 
was  his  wish  and  his  hope  that  the  seminary  should  be  a 
center  of  power  for  the  defense  of  this  theology,  and  through 
its  graduates,  for  its  dissemination  throughout  the  wide 
area  open  to  the  seminary's  influence. " 

In  the  course  of  time,  through  another  far-reaching  bene- 
faction, he  provided  what  was  in  some  measure  an  organ  for 
the  institution.  A  religious  newspaper  called  "The  Interi- 
or, "  which  had  been  started  in  Chicago  to  represent  the  Pres- 
byterian Church,  was  thirty-six  years  ago  about  to  succumb 
to  financial  difficulties,  when  its  friends  and  owners  applied 
to  Mr.  McCormick  to  purchase  it.  So  in  1872  he  bought  the 
paper  as  requested,  placed  it  on  a  firm  financial  basis,  secured 
an  editor  of  rare  ability,  the  Rev.  Dr.  Francis  L.  Patton, 
succeeded  since  by  other  accomplished  editors,  and  thus  made 
it  one  of  the  representative  religious  journals  of  America. 

Your  seminary  could  never  have  been  what  it  is  but  for 
Mr.  McCormick's  adoption  of  it,  so  to  speak,  in  1859,  and 
his  subsequent  munificent  relations  to  it.  Before  he  brought 
it  to  Chicago  the  institution  had  led  a  very  precarious  exist- 
ence, having  no  solid  basis  and  no  assured  future.  It  was 
he  who  gave  it  all  three  of  the  elements  which  Dr.  Nathan 
L.  Rice  pronounced  absolutely  essential  to  a  successful 
theological  seminary,  a  suitable  location,  a  pecuniary  basis, 
and  qualified  professors  who  enjoy  the  confidence  of  the 
church;  and  it  was,  therefore,  he  who  made  possible  all  its 
later  development,  and  especially  its  remarkable  growth  in 
the  last  twenty-six  years. 

Like  most  of  our  other  theological  schools,  this  seminary 

55 


0it€otmxth  Cfteologxcal  .S^eminarp 

began  as  a  mere  department  of  a  literary  institution,  Hanover 
College,  Indiana.  Like  them,  too,  it  soon  abandoned  this 
form  of  organization  as  unsatisfactory.  It  is  an  interesting 
fact  that  the  two  leading  seminaries  in  the  northern  church 
were  founded  by  southern  men,  Princeton  by  a  Virginian, 
Dr.  Archibald  Alexander,  and  McCormick  by  a  North 
Carolinian,  Dr.  John  Matthews.  Dr.  Matthews  began  his 
work  at  Hanover  in  1830,  and  there  continued  it  with  vari- 
ous assistants  for  ten  years,  when  it  became  evident  that  in 
order  to  its  proper  development,  the  theological  department 
must  be  detached  from  the  college  and  independently  or- 
ganized. It  was  accordingly  moved  in  1840  to  New  Albany, 
Indiana,  where  for  several  years  it  grew  and  prospered. 
But  the  increasing  sharpness  of  the  controversy  in  regard  to 
slavery,  in  which  some  of  the  professors  took  a  prominent 
but  disastrous  part,  and  the  estabhshment  and  immediate 
success  of  the  seminary  at  Danville,  Ky.,  gave  the  New 
Albany  school  another  serious  check  and  led  eventually  to 
its  removal  to  Chicago.  The  decisive  consideration  in 
favor  of  this  re-location  was  an  offer  by  Mr.  McCormick 
of  one  hundred  thousand  dollars  for  the  endowment  of 
four  professorships  on  condition  that  the  seminary  should 
be  permanently  located  in  this  city.  The  gift  was  accepted, 
and  the  institution  estabhshed  on  what  is  undoubtedly  one 
of  the  best  sites  for  a  seminary  that  the  continent  affords.  To 
this  original  munificent  donation  Mr.  McCormick  added 
frequently  and  largely  during  his  Hfetime,  and  since  his 
death  the  same  princely  benefactions  have  been  continued 
by  Mrs.  McCormick  and  her  children,  so  that  now  the 
seminary  owns  an  exceedingly  valuable  property  and  possesses 

56 


i^i^torical  gltitire^^ 


an  equipment  for  its  great  work  that  is  unsurpassed  perhaps 
by  any  seminary  in  our  land. 

In  view  of  this  remarkable  and  continued  liberaHty,  the 
governing  bodies  in  1886  changed  the  name  of  the  institution 
from  "The  Theological  Seminary  of  the  Northwest"  to 
"The  McCormick  Theological  Seminary."  And  under 
that  honored  name  it  will  continue  to  send  forth  through  all 
the  future  its  successive  bands  of  soul-reapers. 

It  is  evident,  then,  that  great  as  are  the  results  of  Mr. 
McCormick's  invention  in  enabling  men  to  reap  the  material 
harvests  of  the  world,  still  more  beneficent  and  far-reaching 
are  the  results  of  his  consecrated  wealth  in  fitting  men  to 
reap  God's  spiritual  harvest.  The  equipment  of  semi- 
naries is  obedience  of  the  most  practical  and  fruitful  kind  to 
the  command  given  by  our  Saviour  when  he  said:  "The 
harvest  truly  is  plenteous,  but  the  laborers  are  few;  pray 
ye  therefore  the  Lord  of  the  harvest,  that  he  will  send  forth 
laborers  into  his  harvest." 

But  it  would  be  a  mistake  to  infer  from  what  I  have 
said  that  the  seminary  attained  its  present  position  without 
arduous  and  protracted  struggles,  severe  reverses,  and  sore 
disappointments.  And  in  all  these  trials  he  suffered.  The 
school  was  on  his  heart.  Most  of  its  friends  appreciated 
fully  what  he  was  doing  for  it  and  were  deeply  grateful,  but 
in  some  instances,  as  a  minute  of  your  faculty  states,  "in- 
stead of  admiration  and  gratitude  for  his  sagacity  and  benefi- 
cence, he  was  confronted  with  no  little  opposition  and  opprob- 
rium. "^^  But  "  they  that  sow  in  tears  shall  reap  in  joy.  He 
that  goeth  forth  and  weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed,  shall 

^5  Minute  of  the  Faculty  on  the  Death  of  Mr.  McCormick,  May  24,  1884. 

57 


0lt€otmxtk  €f)eoIogicaI  ^eminarp 

doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bringing  his  sheaves 
with  him."  What  imagination  can  conceive  the  joys  that 
thrill  his  glorified  spirit  as  one  after  another  the  hundreds 
of  ministers  who  went  out  from  his  seminary  arrive  in  the 
land  of  light  when  their  work  on  earth  is  done  and  tell  him 
how  through  the  training  here  provided  by  his  munificence 
they  have  been  able  to  give  the  bread  of  life  to  their  fellow- 
men,  and  when  the  thousands  of  ransomed  souls  who  have 
been  gathered  into  the  Kingdom  of  God  from  every  part  of 
the  world  by  the  men  from  his  seminary  tell  him  how  under 
God  they  owe  to  him  their  knowledge  of  the  Gospel  and  their 
deliverance  from  sin.  Ah,  yes  —  "  He  that  goeth  forth  and 
weepeth,  bearing  precious  seed"  —  a  seminary  is  literally  a 
seedery  —  ''  shall  doubtless  come  again  with  rejoicing,  bring- 
ing his  sheaves  with  him"  —  bringing  his  sheaves  with  him. 

The  Personality  of  the  M.4n 

Cyrus  McCormick  was  cast  in  a  large  mould.  He  was 
a  massive  man  in  body  and  mind.  In  his  stalwart  prime 
with  the  physique  of  a  gladiator,  deep  chested,  broad  shoul- 
dered and  ruddy,  with  his  leonine  head  and  thick  black  hair, 
with  his  firm  face  and  strong  eyes,  he  made  an  extraordinary 
impression  of  physical  and  intellectual  force.  And  the  longer 
one  knew  him  the  more  that  impression  of  power  grew.  He 
was  the  incarnation  of  decision,  energy,  tenacity  and  courage. 
But  all  men  of  power  are  not  great  men.  The  question  re- 
mains as  to  their  moral  qualities  —  the  substratum  of  char- 
acter. Are  they  men  of  granite  convictions  that  will  defy 
the  waves  of  passing  opinion?  Are  they  men  of  regnant 
conscience  and  stainless  integrity?     One  of  his  friends  who 

58 


i^i^torical  ^Dtite^^ 


knew  him  intimately  and  who  is  here  present  to-night  has 
happily  characterized  the  real  secret  of  Mr.  McCormick's 
success  as  follows:  "That  which  gave  intensity  to  his 
purpose,  strength  to  his  will,  and  nerved  him  with  persever- 
ance that  never  failed  was  his  supreme  regard  for  justice, 
his  worshipful  reverence  for  the  true  and  right.  The  thor- 
oughness of  his  conviction  that  justice  must  be  done,  that 
right  must  be  maintained,  made  him  insensible  to  reproach 
and  patient  of  delay.  I  do  not  wonder  that  his  character 
was  strong,  nor  that  his  purpose  was  invincible,  nor  that 
his  plans  were  crowned  with  an  ultimate  and  signal  success, 
for  where  conviction  of  right  is  the  motive-power,  and  the 
attainment  of  justice  the  end  in  view,  with  faith  in  God, 
there  is  no  such  word  as  fail." 

His  ethical  perceptions  were  as  quick  and  keen  as  his 
business  acumen.  He  did  not  have  to  work  his  way  labo- 
riously through  a  moral  problem;  he  reached  his  conclusion 
in  a  flash,  and  there  was  no  uncertainty  or  doubt.  On  a 
business  question  his  judgment  was  clear  and  reliable;  on 
a  moral  question  it  was  almost  unerring. 

Cyrus  H.  McCormick  was  never  disobedient  to  the 
heavenly  vision.  What  conscience  commanded,  he  did. 
In  an  age  accused  of  complete  absorption  in  things  merely 
material  and  of  indifference  to  the  means  by  which  money 
is  made  and  of  selfish  misuse  of  accumulated  wealth,  he 
set  an  example  of  honesty,  integrity  and  benevolence  which 
gave  him  a  distinction  among  the  mass  of  men  like  a  braid 
of  shining  gold  on  a  sleeve  of  hodden  gray.  His  wealth 
was  honorably  acquired  and  nobly  used.  His  nature  was 
not  dwarfed  but  enlarged  by  his  devotion  to  business.     Some 

59 


Pit€t^tmkh.  €lf)eDlogical  J^eminarp 

men  become  mere  business  machines;  their  nobler  powers 
are  atrophied  —  their  natures  are  narrowed  and  shriveled 
by  the  very  intensity  of  their  devotion  to  business,  even 
honorable  business.  It  was  not  so  with  him.  With  all 
his  sagacity  and  skill  and  success  in  practical  affairs,  with 
all  his  concentration  of  energy  upon  whatever  enterprise 
he  had  in  hand,  he  remained  to  the  last  an  idealist,  high- 
souled,  broad-minded,  sympathetic,  benevolent,  devout,  — 
an  Abou  Ben  Adhem,  who  proved  his  love  to  God  by  his 
love  to  his  fellow-men.  He  was  no  mere  moralist;  the  core 
of  his  character  was  his  faith  in  God.  He  was  no  mere 
humanitarian;  the  mainspring  of  his  benevolence  was  his 
gratitude  and  love  to  our  Heavenly  Father. 

Religion  to  him  was  not  a  detached  and  occasional 
thing  —  a  thing  merely  of  times  and  seasons.  It  permeated 
and  controlled  his  whole  life.  His  business  and  his  religion, 
so  far  from  being  relegated  to  different  compartments  of 
his  life,  were  interwoven  like  warp  and  woof.  In  the  most 
crowded  periods  of  his  career  "his  letters,"  as  Dr.  McClure 
has  said,  "  were  a  combination  of  intense  devotion  to  business 
detail  and  of  intense  devotion  to  religious  principle."  At 
the  close  of  a  long  statement  about  machinery  and  contracts, 
he  writes  to  his  brother:  "May  the  Lord  grant  us  all  grace 
to  live  so  that  we  shaU  have  hope  in  our  death  as  had  our 
dear  father,  and  to  this  end  may  we  have  a  well-founded 
hope  in  our  life.  The  work  is  thine,  O  Lord.  Wilt  thou 
draw  us  unto  Thee  by  the  cords  of  Thy  love.  For  of  ourselves 
we  can  do  nothing.  May  we  be  delivered  from  the  bondage 
of  sin  and  have  that  peace  which  the  world  cannot  give  or 


60 


i^i^torical  atitire^^ 


take  away  —  peace  in  believing,  which  will  be  as  an  anchor 
to  the  soul,  sure  and  steadfast. " 

Such  expressions  were  as  natural  to  him  as  breathing.  He 
believed  not  only  that  there  should  be  business  in  our  re- 
ligion and  religion  in  our  business,  but  that  religion  is  our 
business.  "I  often  regret,"  he  writes,  "that  my  example 
has  not  been  better,  more  pious;  and  yet  I  have  often  felt 
a  concern  that  was  not  expressed.  Business  is  not  inconsist- 
ent with  Christianity;  but  the  latter  ought  to  be  a  help  to 
the  former,  giving  a  confidence  and  resignation,  after  using 
all  proper  means,  which  speak  peace  to  the  soul."  And 
again,  at  a  critical  juncture  in  his  business  affairs,  when  he 
was  struggling  with  manufacturers  who  had  broken  their 
contracts,  he  says,"  This  is  the  point  that  should  be  aimed  at, 
the  feeling  that  should  be  cherished  —  unconditional  sub- 
mission and  resignation  to  the  will  and  hand  of  Providence; 
and  with  His  smiles  the  most  crooked  ways  may  be  made 
straight  and  chastisements  converted  into  blessings.  But  for 
the  fact  that  Providence  has  seemed  to  assist  me  in  our 
business,  it  has  at  times  seemed  that  I  would  almost  sink 
under  the  weight  of  responsibility  hanging  upon  me.  But 
I  believe  the  Lord  will  help  me  out.  How  grateful  we  should 
be!  How  humble  on  account  of  unworthiness !  And  yet 
how  rejoicing  that  unworthy  as  we  are,  the  Law  has  been 
satisfied,  and  we  may  be  saved  by  faith. " 

That  was  the  real  life  of  the  man.  And  so,  during  his 
declining  years,  when  chastened  by  much  bodily  affliction, 
he  was  sustained  and  soothed  by  an  unfaltering  trust  and 
bore  his  sufferings  without  a  murmur.     At  last  the  strong 


6i 


;f^t€tMcmxtk  €l)eoio5ical  ^eminarp 

staff  was  broken  and  the  beautiful  rod.  The  powerful 
constitution  which  had  carried  him  victoriously  through 
so  many  conflicts  was  exhausted,  and  he  was  ready  for  his 
rest.  On  the  last  Lord's  Day  of  his  life  on  earth,  hearing 
it  said  that  it  was  Sunday  and  a  beautiful  day,  he  answered, 
"Yes,  sweet  Sabbath."  As  he  lay,  peacefully  awaiting 
the  end,  he  uttered  tender  words  to  each  of  his  children  and 
his  wife,  taking  their  hands  one  after  another,  then  while 
they  knelt  by  his  bedside  he  led  with  firm  voice  the  last 
religious  service  as  the  head  of  his  family,  and  finally  sang 
with  them  his  favorite  hymn: 

"O  Thou,  in  whose  presence  my  soul  takes  delight, 
On  whom  in  affliction  I  call, 
My  comfort  by  day,  and  my  song  in  the  night, 
My  hope,  my  salvation,  my  all." 

To  such  a  man  death  was  but  a  translation.  On  Tuesday, 
May  13,  1884,  he  passed  from  this  life  to  the  life  on  high, 
leaving  behind  him  a  record  of  achievement  as  Inventor, 
Philanthropist  and  Man  of  God  which  will  perpetuate  his 
fame  "to  the  last  syllable  of  recorded  time." 


62 


Conference 

THEOLOGICAL   EDUCATION 

"What    Should    Be   the    Ideals   of    the    Theological    Seminary    for 
Usefulness  in  the  Coming  Half -Century  ? " 

The  Seminary  Chapel,  Tuesday  Morning,  November  Second, 
Nineteen  Hundred  and  Nine,  at  Ten  o'Clock. 

ORDER    OF   EXERCISES 

PROFESSOR   FINIS   K.   FARR,   D.  D., 

Lebanon  Theological  Seminary 
Presiding 

Hymn.     "Holy,  Holy,  Holy." 

Scripture  Lesson .      .      .      .      Professor  D.  A.  Hays,  Ph.D.,  D.  D., 

Garrett  Biblical  Institute 

Psalm  cxxii 
Prayer Professor  T.  G.  Soares,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D., 

Chicago  University  Divinity  School 

Address President  A.  H.  Strong,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Rochester  Theological  Seminary 

Hymn.     "  Jesus  Shall  Reign." 

Address Professor  Robert  W.  Rogers,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Drew  Theological  Seminary 

Hymn.     "Lord,  Speak  to  Me." 

Address Professor  Williston  Walker,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D., 

Yale  Divinity  School 

Gloria. 

Benediction.        .      .      .    President  Edward  D.  Eaton,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

Beloit  College 
63 


^tminatv  ^utloofi 

BY  PRESIDENT  AUGUSTUS  H.  STRONG,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 

MY  first  duty  this  morning  is  to  congratulate  the  Mc- 
Cormick  Theological  Seminary  upon  the  completion 
of  the  eightieth  year  of  its  history.  Though  by  reason  of 
strength  it  has  reached  fourscore  years,  yet  its  strength  is 
not  labor  and  sorrow,  but  a  bearing  of  abundant  fruit. 
Prince  Bismarck  said,  facetiously,  that  the  first  eighty  years 
of  one's  life  are  always  the  pleasantest.  This  Seminary  may 
well  hold  to  a  contrary  opinion,  for  its  old  age  is  surrounded 
by  "honor,  love,  obedience,  troops  of  friends."  My  own 
Seminary  at  Rochester  numbers  only  sixty  years  to  your 
eighty,  yet  I  well  remember  how  admiringly  I  looked  up  to 
your  larger  equipment,  when  I  did  my  first  preaching  on  this 
North  Side  of  Chicago  in  i860  and  1861.  You  have  far 
more  to  be  thankful  for,  to-day.  You  have  been  greatly 
blessed  in  your  benefactors,  and  the  name  you  bear  is  the 
synonym  of  princely  generosity.  Your  teachers  have  stood 
for  the  faith  once  for  all  delivered  to  the  saints.  You  have 
a  past  full  of  splendid  influence  and  achievement.  May 
your  entire  century  of  years  be  rounded  out  with  yet  greater 
success  and  honor! 

I  am  to  speak  to  you  of  "Seminary  Outlook."  To  me 
this  means  the  present  outlook  in  theology.  The  theme 
itself  implies  that  we  live  in  a  changeful  time,  and  that  we 
need  to  define  our  relation  to  the  movements  of  thought 
around  us.     No  one  will  deny  that  the  ideas  of  development 


;^c€ormich  Cfteological  ^emmarp 

and  evolution  have  taken  fast  hold  of  the  modern  mind,  and 
have  greatly  influenced  both  Biblical  and  theological  inves- 
tigation. I  am  inclined  to  concede  much  to  these  views, 
and  to  believe  that,  when  evolution  is  regarded  as  God's 
ordinary  method  of  revelation,  it  throws  valuable  light  upon 
many  problems  that  are  otherwise  insoluble.  A  theistic 
evolution  is  simply  the  doctrine  that  God  builds  the  future 
upon  the  past,  that  later  revelations  are  prepared  for  by  the 
earlier.  As  our  Lord  used  water  to  make  wine,  and  took 
five  loaves  and  two  fishes  as  the  basis  of  his  feeding  the  mul- 
titude, so  natural  law,  as  far  as  it  will  go,  is  respected  in  God's 
communications  of  knowledge.  Truth  is  gradually  com- 
municated, both  to  the  individual  and  to  the  race.  We 
receive  the  divine  fulness  in  installments,  "a  penny  a  day'' 
and  "grace  for  grace."  God  is  not  shut  up  to  merely  ex- 
ternal revelation;  He  can  reveal  himself  within  the  soul  as 
well  as  without  —  "  it  pleased  God  to  reveal  His  Son  in  me, " 
says  Paul.  God  is  not  shut  up  to  working  on  isolated  in- 
dividuals; He  can  move  the  heart  of  a  whole  nation  as  easily 
as  the  heart  of  its  chosen  leaders;  He  makes  himself  known 
in  history  as  well  as  in  Scripture.  God  is  not  shut  up  to  a 
single  nation  as  the  recipient  of  His  enlightening  influences; 
nowhere  has  He  left  himself  without  a  witness;  the  progress 
of  the  race  is  not  a  merely  naturahstic  progress;  all  real 
advance  in  science  and  philosophy  is  due  to  God's  teaching. 
The  sunflower  reaches  upward  to  the  sun,  but  it  is  the  sun 
that  draws  it  upward;  and  it  was  the  Sun  of  Righteousness, 
the  immanent  Christ,  who,  before  the  incarnation  as  well 
as  after,  was  God's  one  and  only  Revealer,  the  Way,  the 
Truth,  and  the  Life  of  Men. 

66 


J^emtnarp  O^utlooft 


I  therefore  feel  free  to  accept  all  that  the  higher  crit- 
icism can  prove  with  regard  to  the  origin  and  development 
of  Scripture,  and  all  that  modern  science  can  prove  with 
regard  to  the  origin  and  development  of  man;  believing 
that  this  evolution  is  a  theistic  evolution,  with  Christ  as  its 
agent  and  goal.  The  word  evolution,  however,  has  to  some 
minds  a  sinister  sound,  as  if  it  necessarily  implied  a  purely 
automatic  and  necessary  development.  While  I  claim  for 
it  a  Christian  use  and  meaning,  I  cannot  deny  that  there 
are  not  wanting  in  our  day  professedly  Christian  teachers 
who  so  emphasize  the  element  of  change  in  the  history  of 
doctrine,  that  all  permanence  is  virtually  denied.  Because 
we  are  in  process  of  development,  both  in  body  and  soul, 
development  is  regarded  as  the  law  of  universal  being,  and  is 
unhesitatingly  attributed  even  to  Him  whom  the  Scriptures 
declare  to  be  without  variation  or  shadow  of  turning.  There 
is  no  such  thing  as  objective  truth,  it  is  said,  and  both  ethical 
and  religious  doctrine  are  impossible,  because  both  are  in 
constant  flux.  Even  Christ  and  Christianity  are  held  to  be 
merely  temporary  phases  of  evolution,  and  both  may  be 
outgrown.  Views  of  this  sort  seem  to  me,  not  necessary 
correlates,  but  rather  needless  exaggerations  and  inexcusable 
perversions,  of  a  sober  theory  of  evolution.  I  maintain  that 
they  have  no  foundation  either  in  reason  or  in  Scripture. 
I  can  best  depict  the  present  outlook  in  our  Seminary  instruc- 
tion, and  the  dangers  that  beset  our  theology,  by  criticizing 
this  mistaken  evolutionism,  and  by  showing,  in  spite  of  its 
grain  of  truth,  that  it  is  bad  metaphysics,  bad  ethics,  and 
bad  theology. 

It  is  bad  metaphysics.     It  is  the  revival  of  the  Heraclitic 

67 


;pc€ormicft  €{)eoIogxcaI  Jjeminarp 

philosophy.  Heraclitus  of  Ephesus,  who  lived  five  hundred 
years  before  Christ,  could  see  nothing  in  the  universe  but 
constant  change.  He  maintained  that  there  is  no  such 
thing  as  permanent  being, —  the  only  actuality  is  an  ever- 
lasting becoming.  All  things  flow,  he  said.  Modern  phe- 
nomenalists  have  adopted  this  philosophy,  and  have  furnished 
it  with  a  score  of  illustrations  from  physical  science.  The 
rainbow  is  no  fixed  entity,  but  an  ever  changing  reflection 
from  successive  falling  water-drops.  The  wave  of  the  sea 
has  no  lateral  movement,  it  is  simply  an  alternate  elevation 
and  depression  of  particles  that  make  no  advance  with  the 
wind  which  impels  it.  The  musical  note  has  no  substantive 
existence,  it  is  the  result  of  a  continuous  series  of  vibrations, 
and  these  vibrations  are  changing  at  every  instant.  The 
flame  of  the  lamp,  the  growth  of  the  tree,  but  above  all, 
the  continuity  of  the  human  body,  are  all  instances  of  a  flux 
of  particles,  which  makes  upon  us  an  impression  of  perman- 
ence, while  at  the  same  time  the  so-called  permanence  is 
an  illusion,  created  by  our  short-sighted  imaginations. 

And  we  must  grant  that  this  philosophy  is  plausible, 
so  long  as  we  confine  our  attention  to  physical  nature.  The 
defect  and  fault  of  it  is  just  here,  it  starts  out  from  physical 
nature  and  makes  that  the  rule  for  the  whole  world,  whereas 
it  ought  to  start  out  from  the  soul  of  man,  which  knows  and 
dominates  physical  nature.  In  the  soul  of  man  we  find 
something  abiding.  Here  is  a  personal  identity,  which 
subsists  through  change,  and  in  spite  of  change.  This 
personal  identity,  and  not  man's  changing  thoughts  or  the 
flux  of  particles  in  his  body,  should  give  us  the  key  to  the 
physical  universe  around  us.     Arguing  from  ourselves,  we 

68 


^emtnarp  (©utlooft 


can  see  in  the  world  of  nature  the  operation  of  intelligence 
and  will,  none  the  less  personal  because  it  is  regular.  The 
regularities  of  nature  are  the  activities  of  a  personal  being, 
yes,  are  the  habits  of  God,  and  all  the  changes  of  the  world 
have  behind  them  the  presence  and  power  of  the  Unchange- 
able One. 

The  Heraclitic  philosophy  of  change  is  true  only  when 
supplemented  by  the  Eleatic  philosophy  of  permanence. 
The  philosophy  of  becoming  has  its  little  grain  of  truth: 
impersonal  reality,  taken  by  itself,  has  nothing  in  it  that  is 
abiding;  the  plant  and  the  brute  are  its  models,  and  they 
are  mere  successions  of  varying  states.  But  if  we  stop  here, 
and  confine  our  attention  to  mere  physical  things,  we  shall 
have  a  materialism  that  is  exalted  to  include  man  and  to  ex- 
clude God;  for  there  is  no  place  in  it  either  for  man's  per- 
sonal identity  or  for  God's  free  will.  To  save  these  great 
interests,  we  must  add,  to  the  philosophy  of  becoming, 
the  philosophy  of  being;  we  must  be  Eleatics  as  well  as  Hera- 
clitics.  Not  all  reality  is  impersonal;  noumenal  and  ontolog- 
ical  reality  is  personal;  and  personal  reality  can  have  varying 
states  and  yet  remain  the  same.  Even  the  world  of  matter 
needs  a  permanent  conscious  self  to  explain  it.  Unless 
there  be  something  abiding,  there  can  be  no  becoming.  The 
very  conception  of  change,  if  the  change  be  not  capricious 
and  useless,  implies  a  law  behind  the  phenomena,  and  an 
end  to  which  the  phenomenal  process  leads.  In  order  to 
rational  progress,  this  law  must  be  intelligent  and  benev- 
olent, as  it  can  only  be,  if  it  is  the  expression  of  a  righteous 
Mind  and  Will.  Nor  can  any  becoming  be  observed,  un- 
less there  be  an  abiding  intelligence  in  the  observer:    only 

69 


fi^t€ctimth  €l)eolDgical  J^eminarp 

when  I  stand  on  the  rock  apart  from  the  stream,  can  I  see 
the  rush  of  the  water  flowing  by.  So,  in  a  true  metaphysics, 
becoming  is  bound  up  with  being.  Development  ?  Yes,  but 
there  must  be  something  to  develop ;  there  must  be  some  law  of 
development;  and  there  must  be  some  end  to  be  secured  by 
development.  The  two  ideas,  of  change  on  the  one  hand, 
and  of  permanence  on  the  other,  are  as  inseparable  as  the 
inside  and  outside  of  a  curve,  or  as  the  positive  and  the  nega- 
tive poles  of  a  magnet.  The  grievous  error  of  this  modern 
overstatement  of  evolutionism  is  that  it  divorces  the  phe- 
nomenal from  the  noumenal,  makes  bodily  change  a  rule  for 
the  soul,  makes  science  as  vain  as  the  cat's  pursuit  of  its 
own  tail,  turns  the  universe  into  a  medley  of  accidents,  with- 
out law  and  without  God. 

This  philosophy  of  becoming  is  bad  ethics,  as  well  as  bad 
metaphysics.  It  gives  us  the  ethics  of  Pragmatism.  It  claims 
that  "the  true  is  the  expedient  in  the  way  of  our  thinking, 
as  the  right  is  the  expedient  in  the  way  of  our  behaving." 
The  conception  of  an  object  is  simply  the  conception  of  its 
future,  its  results,  its  use.  There  is  a  grain  of  truth  here. 
The  conception  of  an  object  does  include  an  awareness  of 
practical  consequences.  Truth  and  right  have  results,  and 
are  proved  by  their  results  to  be  truth  and  right.  But  the 
proof  of  a  thing  is  not  the  thing  itself.  The  error  of  Prag- 
matism is  that  it  regards  truth  and  right  as  meaning  only 
what  we  can  make  by  them.  It  holds  that  truth  and  right 
are  simply  what  works  well.  An  idea  is  true  when  it  carries 
with  it  valuable  results.  An  act  is  right  which  has  happy 
consequences.  This  is  utilitarianism,  taking  the  place  in 
ethics  which  belongs  to  objective  truth  and  righteousness. 

70 


^eminarp  a^utloofe 


It  deprives  us  of  any  standard  of  truth  or  of  right,  except  this, 
that  it  makes  a  difference  in  practice  whether  we  recognize 
them  or  not.  It  denies  that  there  is  any  intuitive  perception 
of  difference  between  right  and  wrong.  As  the  other  so- 
called  intuitions  are  generalizations  from  experience,  so 
this  one  is  merely  a  racial  calculation  of  self-interest.  Con- 
duct is  right  because  it  is  useful,  not  useful  because  it  is 
right.  A  great  modern  authority  has  told  us  that  Sweden- 
borgianism  is  materialism,  with  the  nails  clinched  on  the 
inside.  Modern  Pragmatism  seems  to  be  a  survival  of  such 
Materialism.  The  right  is  whatever  succeeds  in  asserting 
and  maintaining  itself,  which  is  much  the  same  as  saying  that 
might  makes  right.  Conscience  is  only  ripened  expediency, 
and  altruism  is  only  egoism  perfected.  This  perverse  evolu- 
tionism holds  that  consequences  not  only  indicate  truth  and 
right,  but  that  they  constitute  truth  and  right.  It  is  an  out- 
growth of  the  sensational  philosophy  which  holds  that  as  the 
world  consists  of  sensations,  so  the  soul  consists  of  states  of 
consciousness,  thoughts  without  a  thinker,  psychology 
without  a  soul,  a  string  of  beads  without  any  string.  Nietz- 
sche and  Ibsen  and  Bernard  Shaw  profess  this  same  phil- 
osophy, when  they  say  the  golden  rule  is  that  there  is  no 
golden  rule. 

Ethics  of  this  sort  is  like  the  play  of  Hamlet  with  the 
part  of  Hamlet  left  out.  To  say  that  right  is  only  a  becoming, 
that  it  exists  only  in  process,  that  it  consists  only  in  useful 
moral  results,  is  really  to  deny  that  there  is  any  such  thing  as 
morality.  For  our  whole  moral  nature  is  so  constituted 
that  we  judge  certain  acts  or  states  to  be  right,  according 
as   they   conform   to   some  previously   accepted   standard. 

71 


j^cCormicft  Cl)eologicaI  ^eminarp 

Belief  in  the  existence  of  objective  right  and  in  our  obligation 
to  do  the  right  is  born  with  us,  even  though  our  conceptions 
of  what  is  right  may  change.  The  sense  of  duty  is  prior 
to  the  experience  of  consequences:  We  are  compelled  to 
decide  what  we  will  do  in  any  given  case,  without  waiting  to 
see  whether  our  action  will  have  good  results,  in  fact,  doing 
the  right  is  often  required  in  scorn  of  results,  as  when  one 
tells  the  truth  at  cost  of  contumely,  or  witnesses  for  Christ 
at  risk  of  a  martyr's  death.  Is  it  said  that  this  too  is  a  neces- 
sary phase  of  evolution,  and  that  the  fittest  survives  ?  I  reply 
that  in  moral  evolution  it  is  for  each  man  to  determine  what 
is  fittest;  as  another  has  phrased  it,  we  and  our  ideals  are 
factors,  not  products,  of  evolution;  will  explains  evolution, 
not  evolution  will;  we  determine  evolution,  and  evolution 
does  not  determine  us.  In  other  words,  we  are  persons, 
and  not  things;  conscious  selves,  not  mere  streams  of  con- 
sciousness; free  beings,  not  waifs  borne  hither  and  thither 
on  the  current  of  circumstance,  as  a  deterministic  philosophy 
would  have  it.  The  Hindu  Vivekananda  indeed  regards 
all  of  us  as  mere  shifting  phases  of  the  infinite,  for  he  said  to 
his  Boston  audience:  "There  is  not  a  person  in  this  room: 
we  are  not  persons. "  But  we  know  better  than  this.  Back 
of  the  stream  of  consciousness,  we  know  that  there  is  an 
abiding  self;  over  that  abiding  self  we  recognize  an  unchang- 
ing moral  law;  that  unchanging  moral  law  is  an  expression 
of  the  nature  of  God.  We  can  add  to  our  faith  virtue, 
only  because  God  has  called  us  by  his  own  glory  and  virtue. 
"By  their  fruits  ye  shall  know  them,"  says  Christ.  But 
that  is  very  different  from  making  the  fruits  of  virtue  to  be 
the  only  virtue,  in  heaven  or  earth.     To  make  truth  and 

72 


J^eminarp  (©utlooft 


right  the  mere  product  of  our  changing  circumstances, 
identical  with  the  ascertained  usefulness  of  our  thinking 
and  action,  is  to  deny  that  there  is  any  truth  or  right  that 
has  objective  and  eternal  validity,  to  deprive  moral  life 
of  its  sanctions,  and  to  cut  up  ethics  by  the  roots.  Moral 
progress  is  impossible,  since  there  is  no  definite  end  to  which 
progress  can  lead.  Unless  there  is  a  heavenly  perfection  as 
our  guide  and  goal,  our  efforts  after  righteousness  are  as 
useless  as  the  gyrations  of  a  squirrel  in  the  treadmill  of 
its  cage. 

This  philosophy  of  becoming  is  as  bad  theology  as  it  is 
bad  metaphysics  and  bad  ethics.  It  is  a  thoroughgoing 
agnosticism,  for  it  regards  all  religious  ideas  as  simply  crea- 
tions of  man,  and  as  destined  in  time  to  be  supplanted  and 
to  pass  away.  Here,  too,  is  a  grain  of  truth.  There  is 
progress  in  theology,  just  as  there  is  in  astronomy.  But 
that  does  not  mean  that  there  is  change  in  the  objective 
truth,  but  only  that  there  is  change  in  our  apprehensions  of 
the  truth.  Progress  in  astronomy  is  not  man's  creation  of 
new  planets;  it  is  man's  discovery  of  planets  that  were  never 
seen  before,  or  man's  bringing  to  light  of  relations  between 
them  that  were  never  before  suspected.  So  progress  in 
theology  is  only  man's  growing  knowledge  of  God's  un- 
changing truth.  There  are  no  new  planets,  and  there  are 
no  new  books  of  the  Bible,  but  our  understanding  of  both 
is  improving  from  day  to  day.  Through  this  progressive 
understanding  of  nature  and  of  the  Scriptures  the  eternal  God 
is  revealing  himself.  There  is  no  danger  that  two  and  two 
will  ever  make  five,  in  this  or  in  any  future  world,  and  why  ? 
Because  this  mathematical  intuition  is  the  revelation  of  a  fact 

73 


jHcCormtch  Cf^eolagical  ^eminatp 

in  the  being  of  God.  That  virtue  is  praiseworthy  and  vice 
condeninable,  that  love  is  a  duty  and  that  selfishness  is 
wrong,  these  statements  are  not  conclusions  of  experience  or 
of  argument;  they  are  utterances  of  our  moral  nature.  Con- 
science in  men,  declaring  that  right  must  be  done  though  the 
heavens  fall,  is  the  reflection  of  the  unchangeable  holiness 
of  God.  And  this  is  the  meaning  of  Ecclesiastes,  when  it 
tells  us  that  "He  hath  set  eternity  in  their  heart." 

This  unchangeable  element  in  religion  the  philosophy 
of  development  would  abolish.  Man,  it  says,  creates  his 
own  gods,  and  his  gods,  like  himself,  must  change  and  die. 
Man  makes  God  in  His  own  image,  and  God  himself  is  in 
an  endless  process  of  becoming.  It  belongs  to  the  very 
nature  of  the  Absolute  to  grow.  The  process  is  wholly  in- 
ternal to  the  nature  of  man;  God  is  immanent,  but  not 
transcendent.  God  never  speaks,  for  God  is  only  the  grow- 
ing product  of  man's  intelligence.  There  is  no  God  who 
could  possibly  reveal  himself  to  man;  there  is  no  revelation 
of  unchanging  and  eternal  truth;  there  is  no  Messiah  but 
man's  ever-advancing  ideals;  the  Bible,  like  the  sacred 
books  of  India  and  Persia,  represents  only  the  temporary 
gropings  of  the  human  spirit  after  an  ever-flying  goal. 
Christ  and  Christianity,  instead  of  being  a  final  revelation, 
may  in  some  distant  day  be  as  far  behind  the  times  as  Juda- 
ism now  is  to  us.  And  so,  upon  the  altar  of  the  merely  tem- 
poral, is  sacrificed  all  that  gives  to  the  temporal  its  meaning 
and  value,  and  that  is,  the  Eternal.  God's  reaching  down 
to  man  in  incarnation  and  atonement  gives  place  to  man's 
vain  reaching  upward  to  an  impersonal  and  unknown  spirit 


74 


J^eminarp  <©utloofe 


of  the  universe,  that  ever  eludes  his  grasp  and  yet  ever  lures 
him  on. 

Though  an  angel  from  heaven  should  preach  to  us  this 
new  gospel,  we  must  call  it  an  apostasy  from  the  Christian 
faith.  For  Christ  is  the  same,  yesterday,  and  to-day,  and 
forever;  and  while  heaven  and  earth  shall  pass  away,  His 
words  shall  not  pass  away.  It  is  not  only  an  apostasy  from 
the  Christian  faith,  but  it  is  a  surrender  of  even  natural  re- 
ligion. Man's  intuitions  are  God's  tuitions,  and  unless  we 
hold  to  their  incontestable  authority,  we  have  no  God,  and 
no  certainty  of  any  kind  whatever.  Truth,  beauty,  good- 
ness, are  meaningless,  unless  there  is  an  immutable  stand- 
ard of  truth,  beauty,  goodness,  in  God.  Unless  perfection 
is  something  definite  and  attainable,  there  can  be  no  striving 
after  it,  either  in  knowledge  or  in  conduct.  The  Scriptures 
declare  that  eternal  life  consists  in  the  knowledge  of  God; 
and  that,  as  we  now  know  in  part,  we  shall  one  day  know  as 
we  are  known.  The  theory  we  combat  destroys  all  possi- 
biHty  of  such  knowledge,  and  it  renders  theology  as  hope- 
less as  the  boy's  search  for  the  pot  of  gold  at  the  foot  of  the 
rainbow.  It  destroys  all  beHef  in  personal  responsibility; 
for  without  a  divine  rule  of  conduct  there  is  no  responsibility. 
It  destroys  all  hope  of  personal  immortality;  for  without  a 
divine  support  and  goal  for  the  individual  life,  no  personal 
immortality  is  conceivable.  How  different  is  this  doctrine 
from  the  teaching  of  our  Lord:  "I  go  to  prepare  a  place 
for  you;  because  I  Hve,  ye  shall  live  also. "  Nay,  how  differ- 
ent is  it  from  the  teachings  of  purely  natural  rehgion,  for 
that  can  look  up  to  an  unchanging  God,  and  can  promise 


75 


0it€otmttk  Cl^eolosical  ^eminarp 

rest  for  the  weary  soul  in  him.     How  sweet  and  solemn  is 
Edmund   Spenser's    ''Canto   of   Mutability": 

"Then  'gin  I  think  on  that  which  nature  said, 

Of  that  same  time  when  no  more  change  shall  be, 

But  steadfast  rest  of  all  things,  firmly  stayed 
Upon  the  pillars  of  Eternity ; 

For  all  that  moveth  doth  in  change  delight ; 
But  henceforth  all  shall  rest  eternally 

With  him  that  is  the  God  of  Sabaoth  hight; 

Oh  thou  great  Sabaoth  God,  grant  me  that  Sabbath's  sight!" 

Where  does  this  apostasy  from  the  Christian  faith  begin, 
and  where  does  it  end?  It  begins  in  the  refusal  to  accept 
Christ's  word  as  law.  Knowledge  of  doctrine  depends  upon 
obedience  to  the  truth  already  revealed.  Take  Jesus  at  His 
word,  believe  that  He  is  with  you  alway,  pray  to  Him  for  the 
teaching  and  guidance  of  His  Holy  Spirit,  in  other  words, 
take  Christ  for  your  Master,  and  you  shall  be  led  into  all  the 
truth.  Do  the  advocates  of  the  new  theology  pray  to  Jesus  ? 
Do  they  pray  at  all,  with  faith  in  a  personal  God  who  hears 
and  answers  prayer?  Have  they  not  lost  the  sense  of  sin 
and  need,  which  once  led  them  to  prostrate  themselves  at  the 
feet  of  that  ever-living  Savior  who  said:  "Come  unto  me, 
all  ye  that  labor  and  are  heavy  laden,  and  I  will  give  you 
rest  ? "  Have  they  not  failed  to  take  His  yoke  upon  them, 
and  so  have  failed  to  learn  of  Him  ?  He  would  have  increased 
their  faith,  instead  of  allowing  it  to  evaporate.  He  would 
have  shown  them  that  the  Christ  of  John's  gospel,  with  its 
Logos-doctrine  and  its  propitiatory  suffering  of  a  divine 
Saviour,  is  absolutely  needed  to  make  intelligible  the  declara- 
tions of  the  Synoptics;  for  in  the  Synoptic  gospels  the  human 

76 


^emxnarp  <©utIooft 


Christ  bids  the  whole  race  of  man  come  to  him  and  take 
upon  them  His  yoke,  claims  to  be  their  final  Judge,  promises 
His  own  omnipresence  with  His  people,  and,  in  prospect  of 
all  this,  gives  His  life  as  their  ransom  from  guilt  and  sheds 
His  blood  for  the  remission  of  their  sins. 

There  is  a  theology  of  becoming,  to  which  we  may  justly 
hold.  It  is  such  a  becoming  as  Jesus  predicted,  when  He 
declared  that  the  Holy  Spirit  would  lead  His  followers  into  the 
truth  which  before  resurrection  and  Pentecost  they  could 
not  receive.  But,  instead  of  such  progress  toward  truth, 
we  are  pointed  to  a  backward  evolution  which  does  little 
credit  to  the  theory.  Had  God  so  little  care  for  the  work  of 
Christ  that  he  suffered  it  to  be  misrepresented  and  perverted, 
so  soon  as  Jesus  died  ?  Here  is  the  absurdity  of  this  exagger- 
ated evolutionism:  Forgetting  that  the  historical  Christ 
is  not  the  whole  Christ,  and  that  the  Synoptics  show  us  only 
what  he  "began  to  do  and  to  teach,"  it  would  ascertain  the 
real  truth  by  going  back  from  Paul  and  John  to  the  three 
gospels.  Even  then  it  must  purge  the  narrative  of  all  its 
supernatural  elements,  so  that  it  may  present  to  us,  not  a 
divine  Saviour,  but  only  a  human  teacher  and  example, 
fallible  and  imperfect  like  the  rest  of  us.  The  virgin-birth 
of  Christ  must  be  denied,  even  at  the  expense  of  Mary's 
purity,  or  of  the  evangelist's  veracity.  With  the  new  crea- 
tion of  humanity  at  the  birth  of  Jesus,  there  disappears  all 
faith  in  any  new  birth  of  the  individual  Christian  under  the 
influence  of  the  Holy  Spirit:  regeneration  and  conversion 
become  only  names  for  a  gradual  development  of  the  powers 
in  religious  education.  And  if  we  can  dispense  with  a  per- 
sonal God  in  incarnation  and  in  regeneration,  why  can  we 

77 


:0it€otmitk  €f)ealDgicaI  J^eminarp 

not  dispense  with  a  personal  God  in  man's  original  creation  ? 
Neither  beginning,  middle,  nor  end  shall  be  supernatural. 
To  this  pantheistic  or  atheistic  conclusion  such  philosophy 
inevitably  leads.  The  personal  God,  as  was  said  of  Auguste 
Comte's  philosophy,  is  conducted  to  the  frontier,  and  is 
bowed  out  of  His  universe,  with  thanks  for  His  provisional 
services. 

This  facilis  descensus  Averno  is  impossible  to  any  who 
cling  to  the  living  Christ.  The  abyss  of  scepticism  to  which 
this  philosophy  leads  should  warn  us  against  taking  the 
first  steps  in  the  path  of  error.  The  Christ  of  John's  gospel 
is  required  to  vindicate  the  truthfubiess  of  the  Synoptics. 
Only  Christ's  deity  can  explain  His  perfect  humanity.  The 
pitiful  spectacle  of  the  man  who  has  outgrown  Christ,  and 
who  picks  flaws  in  His  Redeemer,  ought  to  teach  us  how 
self-exalting  and  self-deceiving  is  sin.  Unbelief  is  progres- 
sive and  cumulative.  The  deity  and  the  atonement  of  Christ 
are  the  two  towers  of  the  Christian  citadel, —  you  cannot 
hold  the  outworks  when  you  surrender  the  citadel  to  the  foe. 
Education  which  ignores  these  fundamentals  of  the  gospel 
is  not  Christian  education.  The  philosophy  of  mere  be- 
coming gives  us  a  false  metaphysics,  a  false  ethics,  and  a 
false  theology.  Unless  there  be  an  abiding  reality  back  of  all 
change,  an  abiding  right  back  of  all  action,  an  abiding  Deity 
back  of  all  our  conceptions  of  Him,  life  is  but  a  succession 
of  pictures  on  the  screen,  and  faith  is  only  the  child's  notion 
that  the  pictures  are  reahty.  Truth  and  right  are  possible, 
because  God  is  truth  and  right,  and  can  make  himself  known 
to  His  finite  creatures.  He  has  made  himself  known  in  Jesus 
Christ.     He  that  is  of  God  hears  Christ's  words,  as  Christ 

78 


^eminarp  (©utlooh 


utters  them  in  Scripture.  The  Holy  Spirit  bears  witness 
to  their  truth,  and  in  this  testimony  of  the  Holy  Spirit,  as 
the  Reformers  taught,  we  have  the  final  proof  of  inspiration. 
These  wonderful  words  of  life  are  self-evidencing,  and  they 
are  the  power  of  God  unto  salvation.  By  His  word  and  His 
Spirit,  Christ  is  made  to  us  wisdom  and  justification  and 
sanctification  and  redemption.  And  so  the  living,  personal, 
present  Christ  is  the  interpreter  and  the  guarantee  of  God's 
whole  revelation.  Many  things  shall  be  shaken,  but  He 
shall  abide,  Immanuel,  God  with  us.  As  He  is  Himself  the 
Rock  of  ages,  He  joins  unstable  men  to  Himself  so  that  they 
become  a  rock,  upon  which  He  can  build  a  church  against 
which  the  gates  of  hell  cannot  prevail.  To  Him  we  pray 
with  the  poet: 

"O  living  Will,  that  shalt  endure 

When  all  that  seems  shall  suffer  shock, 
Rise  in  the  spiritual  rock, 
Flow  through  our  deeds,  and  make  them  pure." 

The  Christ,  who  thus  speaks  to  us  by  His  Spirit  in  Scrip- 
ture, claims  the  absolute  submission  of  all  men,  not,  as 
President  Eliot  intimates,  because  He  is  a  deified  man,  but 
rather  because  He  is  the  humanized  God,  God  manifest  in 
the  flesh,  the  atoning  and  redeeming  Deity,  the  Creator, 
Upholder,  and  Governor  of  the  universe,  the  object  of  prayer, 
the  Judge  of  the  living  and  the  dead.  No  mere  historic 
fame  and  influence  are  His,  but  an  eternal  rulership  and  an 
absolute  supremacy.  No  longer  becoming,  as  in  the  days 
of  His  earthly  life,  but  being,  He  exercises  an  unchangeable 
priesthood,  and  no  man  can  come  to  the  Father  but  through 
Him.     He  who  has  seen  Him  has  seen  the  Father;  all  men 

79 


j^cCormtch  Cljeological  ^emmarp 

are  to  honor  the  Son  as  they  honor  the  Father;  whosoever 
denieth  the  Son  hath  not  the  Father.  Let  us  not  crucify  the 
Son  of  God  afresh,  and  put  Him  to  an  open  shame.  Espe- 
cially let  our  theological  seminaries,  founded  as  they  were 
to  train  preachers  of  Christ's  gospel,  beware  of  admitting 
to  places  of  instruction  men  who  are  Heraclitics  in  meta- 
physics, Pragmatists  in  ethics,  and  Agnostics  in  theology. 

May  the  McCormick  Theological  Seminary  guard  that 
which  is  commited  to  it,  turning  away  from  the  profane 
babbhngs  and  oppositions  of  the  knowledge  which  is  falsely 
so  called,  which  some  professing  have  erred  concerning  the 
faith. 


80 


Ci^eoloQical  cEDucatton 

BY  PROFESSOR   ROBERT  W.  ROGERS,   Ph.D.   (Leipzig) 
Litt.  D.,  LL.D. 

THE  Theological  Seminary  is  a  professional  school, 
whose  primary  aim  is  to  fit  men  for  an  exacting  and 
laborious  but  delightful  profession.  It  belongs  side  by  side 
with  schools  of  medicine,  law  and  those  graduate  schools 
of  universities  which  purpose  to  prepare  men  for  the  pro- 
fession of  teaching.  These  are  obvious  statements,  quite 
platitudinous  in  character,  and  I  make  them  at  the  very  be- 
ginning of  my  remarks  simply  to  show  that  my  attitude  to 
the  theological  seminary  is  quite  orthodox.  If  I  should 
happen  later  on  to  say  something  which  seems  heretical  I 
beg  you  to  be  so  kind  as  to  remember  the  fundamental  or- 
thodoxy with  which  I  began. 

If  now  in  the  development  of  American  professional 
education  any  general  principles  governing  the  proper  prep- 
aration of  a  young  man  for  the  noble  professions  of  med- 
icine, law  and  teaching  have  been  settled,  it  might  seem 
a  fair  inference  that  these  would  probably  apply  also  to  the 
preparation  of  a  young  man  for  the  ministry.  Any  general 
principles,  I  say,  not  specific  principles, — have  any  general 
principles  come  out  of  our  experience  ?  It  is  perfectly  certain 
that  each  of  these  great  professions  demands  a  preparation 
which  is  in  some  particulars  peculiar  to  itself.  It  is  clear 
enough  that  the  student  of  medicine  must  in  one  way  or 
another  acquire  a  masterful  control  of  his  hand,  that  mar- 


^t€ctmitk  Ctjeologtcal  ^eminatp 

velous  tool  of  constant  daily  use  in  diagnosis  by  the  phy- 
sician and  of  even  more  delicate  use  by  the  surgeon.  The 
lawyer  needs  no  such  hand  as  that.  He  will  do  well  if  he 
can  sign  his  name  so  that  mortal  men  may  hope  to  read  it; 
his  typewriter  will  do  all  the  rest  of  his  writing.  On  the 
other  hand  the  lawyer  might  well  be  taught  to  speak  skilfully 
and  acceptably  if  ever  he  is  to  practice  in  the  courts.  The 
physician  hardly  needs  much  training  of  that  kind.  Unless 
he  come  to  the  professors'  chair  he  will  have  little  need  for 
public  speech.  A  little  wise  reticence  will  have  far  higher 
professional  value  than  much  deftness  of  expression  in 
ready  speech.  There  are  many  other  differentiations  in 
the  training  demanded  by  the  different  professions,  but 
these  bald  and  commonplace  illustrations  will  serve  —  there 
is  no  need  to  labor  the  point.  But  if  these  special  differences 
are  indisputable,  so  also  are  some  general  resemblances. 
It  is  plain  enough  that  it  takes  time  to  get  ready  for  one  of 
these  professions,  time  spent  not  in  general  educational 
development,  but  time  spent  in  specific  professional  prepara- 
tion. There  is  a  widespread  agreement  that  four  years 
should  be  spent  in  the  study  of  medicine  while  three  each 
are  usually  expected  in  preparation  for  law  and  the  higher 
walks  of  the  teaching  profession.  These  things  being  so, 
it  ought  not  be  deemed  an  improper  requirement  to  exact 
three  years  of  definite  scholastic  preparation  for  the  ministry. 
This  is  very  widely  conceded  in  theory,  but  a  good  deal 
whittled  down  in  practice.  In  many  colleges  certain  sub- 
jects are  more  or  less  skilfully  taught  which  make  an  excuse 
for  demanding  admission  to  higher  standing  in  the  seminary 
with  conditions  to  be  made  up  by  which  the  clever  man  works 

82 


€l|eol0gxcal  €tiucation 


through  in  two  years  instead  of  three.     Where  this  is  not 
permitted  by  theological  faculties  too  keenly  alive  to  the 
importance  of  their  work,  the  alert  theological  student  man- 
ages quite  easily  to  diminish  the  time  actually  given  to  his 
studies  by  preaching  week  after  week  during  his  course,  or 
even  by  taking  complete  pastoral  charge  of  a  small  religious 
society.     This   scheme   works    nearly   everywhere,    and   it 
would  be  most  interesting  to  compute  just  how  much  of  the 
theological  course  of  three  years  is  left  intact  by  it.     No 
medical  student  gives  up  a  big  slice  out  of  every  week's  study 
to  the  practice  of  his  future  profession;  the  State  carefully 
protects  itself  against  that  kind  of  predatory  attack.     The 
student  of  law  does  not  practice  in  the  courts  while  his  studies 
go  on  in  the  law  school,  the  State  again  protecting  itself 
against  him;  nor  does  the  future  teacher  take  a  school  and 
carry  it  on,  giving  so  much  of  his  time  as  remains  to  the 
university  faculty.     But  the  theological  faculties  in  greater 
or  less  degree  have  everywhere  made  some  concession  to  this 
stupid  and  wasteful  custom.     The  students  who  are  per- 
mitted to  preach,  or  worse  still  to  have  regular  pastoral 
charges,  are  either  scaling  down  their  theological  course, 
or  learning  and  practicing  various  schemes  for  making  ser- 
mons easily,  or  doing  both  of  these  things.     In  their  case  it 
is  idle  to  talk  of  securing    adequate  theological   learning. 
But  worse  even  than  that  is  the  case  for  the  course  of  study, 
for  it  is  always  necessarily  modified  to  suit  their  needs, 
and  a  less  demand  is  made  of  all  students  on  their  account. 
The  whole  theological  curriculum  is  also,  whether  consciously 
or  unconsciously,  influenced  by  their  needs.     They  must 
have  something  that  is  immediately  available  for  use.    They 

83 


jHcCotttiich  €f)eoloBXcal  ^eminatp 

wish  indeed  to  learn,  eagerly  wish  it,  but  they  have  eyes 
most  keenly  fastened  on  that  which  can  be  used  next  Sunday. 
The  great  question  which  they  desire  to  put  before  the  exe- 
getical  departments  is,  ''What  does  this  text  mean?  —  I 
wish  to  preach  on  it  next  Sunday, "  and  in  a  rough  sort  of 
way  they  have  the  same  problem  set  for  every  other  depart- 
ment. ''Can  you  give  me  an  illustration?  Can  I  get  a  hint 
by  which  the  beggarly  rudiments  of  my  own  thinking  can 
be  filled  out?"  In  such  an  atmosphere  as  that,  learning 
does  not  flourish.  The  whole  glorious  field  of  learning  is 
prostituted  to  immediate  practical  ends.  Do  I  speak  too 
sharply?  This  is  a  mild  expression  of  my  real  feelings. 
I  am  accustomed  to  say  in  the  theological  seminary  where 
my  lot  is  cast,  that  the  whole  student-preaching  system  is 
the  curse  of  the  place.  I  know  perfectly  well  what  are  the 
arguments  in  its  favor,  and  I  think  I  have  considered  them 
all,  and  it  is  my  profound  conviction  that  none  of  them  have 
any  weight.  We  are  told  that  the  students  are  too  poor; 
they  must  earn  money  or  abandon  their  preparation.  But 
students  of  medicine  and  law  are  frequently  poor  enough, 
but  they  get  on  without  this  great  waste,  and  it  is  full  time 
for  us  to  find  some  other  way  to  help  them  to  support. 
We  should  be  far  better  off  with  half  the  number  of  the 
students,  who  were  really  giving  all  their  time  to  serious 
study.  Here  is  the  very  beginning  of  reform  in  theological 
education,  and  we  shall  not  be  able  to  put  our  work  into  any 
serious  comparison  with  that  achieved  by  the  theological 
faculties  of  Germany  until  we  have  utterly  wiped  out  this 
whole  system. 

And  now  let  me  come  closer  to  the  problem  that  lies 

84 


€l)eolDsical  <£tiucation 


nearest  my  heart.  Time  was  when  the  minister  was  by  far 
the  best  educated  of  all  professional  men  in  this  country. 
It  gives  one  a  thrill  to  read  those  solemn  and  earnest  words 
pronounced  in  1643:  "After  God  had  carried  us  safe  to 
New  England,  and  wee  had  builded  our  houses,  provided 
necessaries  for  our  livelihood,  rear'd  convenient  places 
for  God's  worship,  and  settled  the  civill  government :  one  of 
the  next  things  we  longed  for  and  looked  after  was  to  advance 
learning  and  perpetuate  it  to  posterity;  dreading  to  leave  an 
illiterate  ministry  to  the  churches,  when  our  present  ministers 
shall  lie  in  the  dust."  It  was  the  beginning  of  a  splendid 
effort  to  save  the  churches  from  the  hands  of  the  ignorant, 
and  it  found  its  reward.  But  that  spirit  soon  died  out  and 
many  churches  gloried  in  an  uneducated  ministry,  prided 
themselves  upon  theological  ignorance,  rejoiced  to  think 
that  they  could  honor  God  by  giving  to  his  service  less  than 
they  offered  to  the  service  of  men.  But  the  land  was  never 
wholly  left  without  centers  of  theological  learning,  and  in  the 
early  days  when  a  few  months  served  to  secure  a  degree  in 
medicine  or  law  a  much  more  considerable  requirement 
was  made  in  theology.  What  a  revolutionary  change  has 
passed  over  us  since  then.  The  medical  schools  have 
raised  their  demands  step  by  step,  broadening  and  deepening 
their  curricula.  And  as  their  opportunities  for  practical 
bedside  instruction  were  widened,  even  more  did  they  extend 
the  purely  scientific  side.  The  doors  were  opened  wide  and 
in  trooped  comparative  anatomy,  histology  and  embryology 
to  take  their  places  by  the  old  science  of  anatomy,  and  with 
them  came  also  comparative  physiology,  biological  chem- 
istry,  pathology,   bacteriology,   neuropathology   and  others 


;i^c€omiicft  €f)eoIogxcaI  ^eminarp 

equally  or  even  more  remote  to  the  immediate  demands  of 
everyday  practical  requirement.  The  wise  and  far-sighted 
men  who  were  building  up  the  newer  schools  were  not  de- 
terred by  wild  cries  that  what  was  needed  was  practical 
instruction.  They  knew  better  things  than  that,  and  were 
determined  to  force  every  student  to  lay  a  broad  scientific 
foundation,  to  study  many  things  whose  practical  outcome 
was  remote.  Nay,  they  even  were  able  to  bring  it  about 
that  courses  preparatory  to  medicine  were  offered  in  many 
colleges,  and  so  the  medical  course  was  extended  downwards 
by  one  or  even  two  years. 

In  the  same  way  exactly,  the  law  course  has  been  ex- 
tended over  ever  widening  areas  in  which  the  future  prac- 
titioner is  compelled  to  learn  what  law  is,  in  its  inner  histor- 
ical meaning,  and  a  large  part  of  his  course  is  not  practical 
but  scientific,  not  intended  for  use,  but  for  reserve,  for  a 
background  of  learning,  real  learning  against  that  day  when 
a  draught  may  be  needed  for  some  higher  end. 

To  meet  all  these  wider  ends  the  medical  and  legal 
faculties  have  been  enormously  increased  in  numbers.  There 
are  for  example  at  Harvard  University  seventeen  men  on  the 
law  staff  and  fifty-six  on  the  medical  staff,  and  at  the  Uni- 
versity of  Pennsylvania  there  are  eighteen  in  law  and  one 
hundred  and  thirty-two  in  medicine.  Compare  these  amaz- 
ing figures  with  the  faculties  of  five  and  six  that  prevailed  in 
medicine  when  I  was  a  boy. 

With  all  this  progress  in  medicine  and  in  law,  theology 
has  not  kept  pace.  The  theological  schools  once  led  the 
whole  great  column  of  professional  institutions;  they  are 
now  far  in  the  rear.     In  an  academic  procession  at  any 

86 


€l)eoIogicaI  €tiucalion 


great  university  function  the  few  men  who  compose  the 
theological  faculty  are  lost  in  the  thronging  numbers  of  the 
great  professional  faculties.  Their  curricula  have  indeed 
been  somewhat  extended,  room  has  indeed  been  found  for 
some  of  the  new  social  sciences.  I  record  the  fact  gladly, 
jubilantly  even,  but  I  go  on  to  say  that  these  extensions 
and  improvements  are  small  indeed  when  compared  with 
the  overwhelming  progress  and  extension  in  every  other 
professional  school. 

And  now  you  ask  me,  "What  should  be  the  Ideals  of 
the  Theological  Seminary  for  Usefulness  in  the  Coming  Half- 
Century?"  and  my  answer  springs  instant  to  my  lips  and 
grows  full-toned  out  of  all  that  I  have  dared  to  say  about 
other  professional  training.  My  answer  is :  More  learning, 
higher  scholarship.  Mark  this  well.  I  do  not  doubt  that 
the  practical  training  in  the  theological  schools  might  well 
be  improved  and  extended.  The  practical  side  has  been 
extended  and  improved  in  law  and  medicine,  but  that  is 
not  the  first  need,  as  things  now  are.  The  first  need  is  more 
learning,  higher  scholarship.  The  whole  school  needs  to 
be  flooded  with  learning,  with  learning  for  reserve  and  not 
for  immediate  use,  with  learning  for  its  own  sake,  aye,  with 
useless  learning  just  because  it  is  learning.  The  ideal  for 
the  next  fifty  years  must  be  to  lift  the  theological  seminary 
abreast  of  the  law  and  medical  and  graduate  faculties 
and  then  ahead  of  them  once  more.  I  speak  earnestly, 
even  passionately.  I  wish  the  future  minister  of  the 
glorious  Gospel  of  the  Son  of  God  to  be  able  to  look  level 
into  the  eyes  of  the  best  trained  men  in  his  community;  to 
be  bold  as  a  lion  because  he  knows  what  has  been  going 

87 


j^cCormicft  Cljeological  ^eminarp 

on  in  this  progressing  world  and  what  is  now  going  on;  to 
feel  confident  that  no  doctor  or  lawyer  or  professor  in  his 
parish  will  come  to  him  with  some  matter  of  biblical  criticism 
or  theological  speculation,  the  implications  of  which  he 
cannot  discern  because  he  does  not  know  what  preceded  it. 
More  learning,  more  learning,  a  higher  and  deeper  and 
broader  scholarship,  —  this  is  my  ideal  for  the  future. 

How  shall  we  secure  these  things,  assuming  for  the  mo- 
ment that  you  agree  as  to  their  need  ?  I  wish  to  say  some- 
thing in  answer,  and  at  the  very  outset  must  declare  that  it 
will  be  no  easy  task.  It  was  not  easy  to  lift  the  other  fac- 
ulties, but  men,  mortal  men  like  ourselves,  have  accom- 
plished it.  If  we  mean  it,  if  we  are  sure  that  we  desire  it 
above  all  else  we  shall  secure  it,  and  not  otherwise.  But 
how  shall  it  be  secured?  Let  me  speak  very  briefly  and 
pointedly  about  some  only  of  the  factors  which  are  sure  to 
be  potent  in  its  securing,  omitting  others  perhaps  equally 
important,  or  perhaps  in  your  opinion  even  more  significant. 
I  pass  over  the  vital  question  of  a  higher  standard  for  the 
admission  of  students,  or  perhaps  I  should  say  a  more  rigid 
application  of  the  standard  that  we  already  possess,  and 
come  at  once  to  a  problem  already  mentioned  as  a  sign  of 
weakness.  We  must  seek  and  find  some  way  of  stopping 
the  waste  of  preaching  and  of  pastoral  charges.  I  do  not 
dispute  the  need  of  some  practical  experience,  something  to 
take  the  place  of  clinical  instruction  in  medicine  and  moot 
courts  in  law,  but  the  method  now  widely  if  not  generally 
pursued  seriously  diminishes  the  length  of  the  course  of 
study  and  prevents  the  rise  of  genuine  scholarship. 

But  far  more  important  than  these  student  problems  is 

88 


Cljcological  €tiucation 


the  question  of  the  faculty.  No  great  progress  is  possible 
but  through  them.  Not  the  buildings  and  not  the  students 
but  the  professors  make  or  break  the  school.  I  have  some- 
thing to  say  about  the  theological  faculty,  something  very 
earnest  to  say,  something  very  much  on  my  heart  these  many 
years.  I  begin  with  the  simplest  and  least  important  matter 
and  go  on  to  the  higher  and  deeper  things.  The  theological 
faculty  must  be  enlarged,  greatly  enlarged.  The  faculties 
of  medicine  and  law  have  found  enlargement  to  meet  new 
issues,  new  extensions  of  human  knowledge.  There  has 
indeed  been  some  extension  here  and  there  in  theology, 
but  it  has  been  small,  in  some  places  even  grudging.  But 
the  new  day  has  new  issues  and  the  new  issues  demand  a 
new  meeting  or  a  new  attack,  and  new  professorships  in 
larger  number  are  sorely  needed.  Religious  pedagogy, 
sociology  and  church  economics,  missions,  and  so  on 
through  a  number  more  ought  to  find  fitting  representation. 
Not  that  every  student  must  be  taught  everything  in  every 
new  subject,  but  let  us  find  out  what  the  individual  ought 
specially  to  study,  after  a  solid  foundation  of  general  theolog- 
ical learning  has  been  laid,  and  then  see  that  he  secures  that 
and  in  sufficient  amount  to  make  it  worth  while.  Special- 
ism in  something  is  better  than  everlasting  smattering  of 
everything.  When  Philips  Brooks  went  to  Germany  and 
saw  the  world's  theological  leaders  he  wrote  back  to  his 
brother  a  lament  that  he  also  had  not  taken  time  to  make 
himself  ''omniscient"  in  something,  instead  of  always  stand- 
ing at  the  general  and  the  superficial.  But  we  need  new 
professors,  and  new  associates  and  instructors  for  the  old 
departments  that  have  always  been  in  the  curriculum.     More 

89 


;^c€onnicft  Cl^eological  4^eminarp 

courses  given  by  different  men  with  differing  outlooks  and 
methods  will  develop  originality  in  the  students  and  freshen 
and  enliven  all  their  future  preaching.  We  have  turned 
out  too  many  students  all  of  a  similar  pattern,  made  like 
unto  some  one  masterful  man  in  the  faculty.  Let  us  put  by 
that  masterful  man's  side  a  young  and  eager  and  ambitious 
instructor  trained  somewhere  else  and  see  how  his  influence 
will  quicken  his  chief  to  new  effort,  and  the  students  to 
independent  thinking.  It  will  have  another  valuable  in- 
fluence also,  and  I  have  a  word  to  say  about  that  in  a  moment. 
So  much  then  for  the  extension  of  the  faculty.  The  ex- 
tensive is  good  but  the  intensive  is  better.  The  faculty 
that  now  is,  the  small  and  unextended  faculty  needs  im- 
provement, needs  a  better  chance.  We  ought  to  have  better 
theological  faculties.  It  is  a  delicate  subject.  It  is  not 
wise  for  a  reasonably  prudent  man  to  say  anything  very 
pointed  about  it.  I  shall  simply  express  my  hearty  pride 
in  many  of  my  colleagues  in  many  theological  faculties, 
men  of  international  reputation  for  scholarship,  and  add, 
"  May  their  tribe  increase. "  The  point  to  which  I  am  com- 
ing is  that  the  faculties  that  now  exist  need  a  better  chance 
to  practice  learning.  They  are  too  much  cramped  in  various 
ways  to  fulfil  their  highest  function,  and  they  do  not  ade- 
quately fulfil  it.  He  who  doubts  that  statement  needs  only 
to  compare  our  intellectual  output  with  the  German  to  be 
convinced.  Neither  in  the  extent  or  the  thoroughness  of 
the  training  which  is  imparted  to  our  students  do  we  even 
so  much  as  approach  the  German  achievement.  Many  of 
us  were  trained  in  Germany  in  whole  or  in  part,  and  are 
we  not  filled  with  repining  as  we  compare  our  success  with 

90 


Cfteological  oEtiucation 


what  we  saw  there  week  by  week  ?  How  shall  we  dare  set 
the  examinations  which  we  give  in  comparison  with  those  we 
had  to  face  in  Germany  ?  And  the  training  itself,  apart  alto- 
gether from  the  question  of  examinations.  The  scope  of  it  all, 
the  thoroughness,  the  fearless  meeting  of  difficulties.  I  have 
just  been  reading  Dr.  Paul  Wernles'  brilliant  Einfiihrung 
in  das  theologische  Studium^  and  as  I  see  what  it  demands  of 
the  theological  student,  and  compare  it  with  what  we  demand, 
there  is  no  more  heart  in  me.  Of  course  our  students  are 
different;  some  of  them  are  already  weary  of  the  ascent  to 
learning,  curious  creatures  exhausted  by  college,  who  are 
eager  to  get  into  the  active  work  of  life;  others  are  frankly 
lazy;  the  thoroughly  determined,  earnest  men  with  intellec- 
tual enthusiasm  are  in  the  minority  in  most  places.  But 
part  of  the  failure  to  secure  great  results  in  their  intellectual 
advancement  lies  at  our  door,  and  whose  fault  is  it  ?  Grant- 
ing that  some  of  the  fault  is  ours,  fully  and  unreservedly 
ours,  I  am  nevertheless  persuaded  that  the  failure  is  really 
due  to  the  conditions  under  which  we  work.  We  are  in 
trammels,  sorely  beset  with  enormous  difficulties.  Free 
us  from  these  and  the  results  will  speedily  show  in  our 
classes. 

But  if  we  fail  to  demand  and  to  secure  from  our  students 
such  a  standard  as  do  the  Germans,  so  also  do  we  fail  to 
reach  their  standard  of  scholarly  productiveness.  We 
have  indeed  made  progress;  we  are  cHmbing  up  the  steeps, 
but  they  are  scarcely  yet  within  sight.  Our  libraries  are 
filled  with  the  books  they  have  written ;  many  of  us  are  per- 
force content  to  reproduce  with  more  or  less  independent 
criticism  what  they  have  beaten  out  and  published.     Oh, 

91 


jHcCormicft  Cljeologtcal  ^cminarp 

to  be  nearer  to  them;  to  be  fellow-workers;  to  submit  to  their 
standard  and  to  be  counted  worthy  to  be  classed  with  them, 
—  that  were  joy  indeed.  Some  of  our  number  have  at- 
tained it.  The  names  of  George  F.  Moore  of  Harvard  and 
of  Francis  Brown  of  Union  spring  instant  to  the  lip,  and 
there  are  yet  others.  But  they  are  all  too  few.  Why  are 
there  so  few  among  us  able  to  raise  up  disciples  as  they  do; 
able  to  turn  out  such  scholarly  productions  as  they  do? 
How  shall  we  attain  to  their  standard  ? 

As  I  see  it  we  need  three  things,  three  things  above  all 
else,  and  if  we  could  secure  these  I  verily  believe  we  should 
rapidly  rise  to  a  position  comparable  even  to  that  held  by 
our  German  friends  and  teachers. 

I.  The  first  of  these  is  less  teaching.  I  freely  admit 
that  in  a  very  few  seminaries  the  ideal  may  be  almost  reached. 
But  nearly  everywhere  men  teach  too  many  hours.  In  gen- 
eral it  may  fairly  be  said  that  the  smaller  the  number  of  hours 
the  more  will  a  man  really  teach.  If  we  all  had  but  few 
hours  we  should  prepare  more  absolutely  new  lectures, 
feel  more  frequently  the  thrill  of  enthusiasm  and  not  the 
weariness  of  fatigue,  arouse  more  zeal  among  the  students, 
more  perfectly  represent  the  very  latest  word  in  our  respec- 
tive fields.  But  we  should  also  have  time  to  feel  our  way 
out  into  new  ideas  and  to  new  combinations  of  old  ideas; 
scholarly  productiveness  and  the  direct  advance  of  human 
knowledge  would  become  more  common  among  us.  Years 
ago  I  was  lecturing  at  a  summer  school  in  Birmingham, 
England,  and  one  of  my  colleagues  was  Sir  William  Ramsay 
of  Aberdeen.  One  afternoon  I  was  seated  by  him  at  a  Cycle 
Gymkhana  and  long  and  interesting  was  the  conversation. 

92 


€l)eolo5icaI  OEtJucatian 


He  was  talking  of  books  then  in  the  making,  and  since  pub- 
lished. I  expressed  wonder  at  his  productivity,  and  said 
that  I  felt  ashamed  of  my  very  small  output  of  books  and 
papers  when  I  thought  of  his.  He  smiled  and  said  that  it 
was  easy  to  explain.  He  lectured  at  Aberdeen  only  six 
months  in  the  year,  and  only  from  two  to  four  times  a  week ! 
The  remainder  of  the  year  he  spent  upon  Asia  Minor,  in 
which  he  is  one  of  the  foremost  living  authorities,  if  indeed 
he  is  not  unrivaled.  Sometimes  he  spent  the  whole  of  his 
vacation  in  the  field,  and  the  cost  of  his  travel  was  met  by 
his  university  or  by  stipends  voted  by  other  Scottish  insti- 
tutions. Ramsay  is  indeed  a  man  of  splendid  ability,  and 
would  have  done  much  even  under  adverse  conditions.  But 
his  large  contributions  to  learning  are  directly  traceable  to 
the  liberahty  with  which  his  university  has  treated  him. 
Aberdeen  has  presented  him  to  the  world.  Aberdeen  has 
in  his  person  endowed  learning,  and  has  been  richly  repayed 
in  the  new  life  that  he  has  trained  in  his  very  few  hours  of 
teaching,  and  in  the  world-wide  reputation  which  his  pub- 
lished work  has  secured,  for  all  of  his  renown  reflects  glory 
upon  his  university.  Aberdeen  has  indeed  made  Ramsay, 
but  Ramsay  has  made  Aberdeen.  The  moral  is  obvious. 
Let  some  of  our  seminaries  give  a  real  chance  to  rising  schol- 
ars, and  watch  the  results  with  dehght.  They  will  not  indeed 
easily  discover  a  Ramsay;  they  will  be  almost  sure  of  the 
discovery  of  real  worth  everywhere,  which  shall  make  its 
opportunity  an  achievement. 

2.  The  second  need  is  a  general  increase  in  salary.  Few 
theological  professors  in  America  receive  a  salary  which  in 
itself  enables  them  to  live  on  or  slightly  above  the  comfort 

93 


j^cCormicft  Cfteological  ^eminarp 

line.  The  comfort  line  varies  indeed  in  different  commun- 
ities, but  it  is  not  difficult  to  compute.  If  the  salary  falls 
below  that  line  the  incumbent  of  the  chair  is  irresistibly 
impelled  to  earn  money  by  some  outside  work,  and  every 
dollar  thus  earned  is  secured  at  the  cost  of  teaching  or  of 
research  or  of  both.  Dr.  Pritchett  has  recently  observed 
that  "a  large  proportion  of  the  teachers  in  American  uni- 
versities are  engaged  in  turning  the  grindstone  of  some  out- 
side employment  with  one  hand  whilst  they  carry  on  the 
work  of  the  teacher  with  the  other.  "^  The  figure  is  happily 
chosen.  It  is  grindstone  work  indeed,  but  the  unhappy 
professor  is  not  sharpening  his  tools,  he  is  wearying  his 
muscles,  intellectual  as  well  as  physical.  The  institutions 
that  pay  salaries  below  the  comfort  line  are  cheating  them- 
selves, and  their  students,  and  the  world  of  scholarship, 
for  they  are  not  securing  the  full  service  of  their  staff.  A 
salary  well  above  the  comfort  line  would  infallibly  mean 
less  outside  work,  more  and  better  teaching,  and  more  in- 
struction of  the  church  and  the  world  by  books  and  papers. 
My  friend  Professor  Driver  of  Oxford  has  become  the  teacher 
of  the  whole  world  of  theological  workers  by  his  books. 
He  is  indeed  a  man  of  unusual  gifts,  but  a  part  at  least  of 
his  great  contribution  to  learning  may  justly  be  ascribed  to 
these  two  great  concomitant  advantages.  He  teaches  only 
twice  or  thrice  a  week,  for  twenty-one  weeks  or  less  in  the 
year,  and  his  salary  is  seven  thousand  dollars  and  a 
residence. 


^  The  Financial  Status  of  the  Professor  in  America  and  in  Germany  : 
Bulletin  Number  2,  p.  cviii,  The  Carnegie  Foundation  for  the  Advance- 
ment of  Teaching. 

94 


€l)cological  <gDucation 


3.  The  third  necessity  is  a  greatly  changed  attitude  to 
scholarship  on  the  part  of  boards  of  trustees  and  administra- 
tion, and  especially  on  the  part  of  the  whole  church.  There 
is  too  much  sensitiveness  and  dread  of  heresy.  Somebody 
is  turned  out,  or  fails  of  re-election ,  or  receives  properly  ac- 
credited hints  to  resign,  or  is  simply  pounded  because  he  is 
reputed  to  have  said  or  thought  something  inconsistent  with 
the  interpretation  of  Bible  or  creed  which  somebody  else 
holds.  Under  such  pressure  scholarship  simply  cannot 
flourish.  Scholarship  is  not  a  weed  that  will  thrive  anywhere. 
Scholarship  is  a  delicate  and  exquisite  flower  and  flourishes 
where  it  is  appreciated  and  among  those  who  deserve  it. 
This  timidity  over  heresy  will  crush  it.  Why  should  men 
so  exercise  themselves  about  every  little  difference  of  opinion  ? 
These  creeds  of  ours  must  be  a  poor  company  if  they  cannot 
stand  a  bit  of  a  shake  now  and  again.  Every  first-class  in- 
stitution is  entitled  to  a  little  heresy  here  and  there  to  keep 
it  from  stagnation.  It  will  do  the  students  not  harm  but 
good.  The  men  who  are  timidly  trying  to  protect  them 
against  baleful  thinking  need  not  worry,  —  most  of  them  are 
not  thinking  much  about  anything,  and  will  not  easily  be 
swept  into  dangerous  heresy  unless  the  whole  faculty  with 
one  mind  and  purpose  cajole  them  into  it,  and  it  is  not  easy 
to  gather  such  a  garden  of  heretical  professors  as  that. 
Freedom  to  learn,  freedom  to  teach, — there  is  our  greatest 
need  to-day.  There  has  been  a  gain  in  these  things,  I  gladly 
acknowledge  it,  but  there  is  a  cry  for  more. 

My  story  is  told.  I  am  set  for  the  defense  of  learning. 
I  am  eager  to  see  it  flourish  and  fruit  among  us.  I  appre- 
ciate the  need  for  practical  instruction  for  a  practical  life 

95 


;^c€ormxcfe  Cfteological  J^eminarp 

work  among  sinful  men.  I  have  said  it  before.  I  am  re- 
peating it  as  I  close,  but  I  leave  its  advocacy  to  others.  Mine 
the  joy  to  plead  for  learning  and  scholarship.  O  ye,  who 
direct  these  our  seminaries  of  theological  learning,  in  the 
next  fifty  years  give  us  these,  and  give  them  a  place  to 
flourish. 


96 


O^tolDQical  CDucatfon 

BY  PROFESSOR  WILLISTON  WALKER,  D.  D.,  LL.D. 

THE  Psalmist,  in  pointing  out  the  allotted  span  of  man's 
life,  characterized  the  full  limit  of  eighty  years  as 
marked  by  '* labor  and  sorrow."  True,  indeed,  in  the  ex- 
perience of  individuals,  it  is  fortunately  not  true  as  a  de- 
scription of  the  attainment  of  such  maturity  by  an  institution. 
It  was  my  privilege  this  summer  to  participate  in  the  cel- 
ebration by  an  eminent  foundation  for  the  advancement  of 
learning  —  the  University  of  Leipzig  —  of  its  five  hundredth 
anniversary.  If  immortality  can  be  predicated  of  any  of  the 
creations  of  men,  it  surely  belongs  to  seminaries,  colleges, 
and  universities.  They  renew  their  youth  perpetually; 
and  no  small  share  of  the  satisfaction  which  attaches  to  the 
post  of  an  instructor  within  their  walls  is  the  confidence 
that  he  feels  that  he  is  building  his  life  into  a  structure  that 
will  endure,  to  the  strength  and  future  usefulness  of  which 
he  may,  in  his  measure,  contribute,  by  helping  to  augment 
a  power  that  will  continue  long  after  he  himself  has  gone 
the  way  of  all  mankind. 

Compared  with  the  life  of  the  venerable  University  of 
which  I  have  just  spoken,  the  eighty  years  of  McCormick 
Seminary  seem  but  a  span;  yet  what  a  stretch  of  honored 
history  they  represent,  what  prayers  offered,  what  hopes 
patiently  wrought  into  achievement,  what  a  succession  of 
consecrated  lives  devoted  to  its  upbuilding,  what  a  sum 
total  of  worthy  accomplishment !     Well  may  this  be  a  happy 

97 


j^c€ormitb  Cljeological  ^emtnarp 

day  for  McCormick  Seminary,  as  it  surveys  its  honorable 
past  and  looks  forward  with  confidence  to  the  future.  As 
a  representative  of  Yale  University,  and,  in  so  far  as  I  may, 
as  an  unofficial  representative  of  the  Congregational  Churches 
of  the  United  States,  it  is  my  great  privilege  to-day  to  fe- 
licitate McCormick  Seminary  on  its  history  and  present  at- 
tainment, and  to  express  the  hope  that  the  good  hand  of  God 
which  has  so  blessed  it  in  the  past,  may  bestow  upon  it  ever 
greater  favor  in  the  years  to  come.  In  the  words  of  the 
familiar  German  University  toast,  vivat,  crescat,  floreat; 
and  may  it  live,  grow,  and  flourish  for  His  sake  whose  King- 
dom it  has  served  so  well  and  which  it  is  set  to  advance  by 
all  the  wisdom  which  His  good  Spirit  may  grant. 

The  present  speaker  is  reminded,  however,  that  he  is 
not  here  simply  to  express  the  congratulations  and  good 
wishes  of  a  sister  institution  of  learning,  and  of  a  great  and 
sympathetic  body  of  Christian  churches.  Your  committee 
in  charge  of  this  celebration  has  kindly  asked  him  to  discuss, 
in  company  with  others,  "What  should  be  the  Ideals  of  the 
Theological  Seminary  for  Usefuhiess  in  the  Coming  Half- 
Century?"  In  attempting  to  answer  that  question,  in  a 
paper  written  before  our  gathering  this  morning,  and  in 
ignorance  of  what  the  speakers  who  have  preceded  him  may 
have  said,  he  is  conscious  that  he  may  repeat  unnecessarily 
some  thoughts  that  have  already  been  called  to  your  atten- 
tion. He  is  also  painfully  aware  of  the  uncertainty  of  all 
attempts  at  prophecy.  The  course  of  history  has  an  almost 
ironical  fashion,  at  times,  of  belying  the  efforts  of  those  who 
attempt  to  forecast  its  progress.  When  the  separation  of 
church  and  state  was  under  discussion  in  Massachusetts 

98 


€l)eoIogical  aEDucation 


three-quarters  of  a  century  ago,  an  eminent  judge,  famed 
for  his  wisdom,  predicted  with  all  confidence,  that,  if  the 
divorce  was  effected,  twenty-five  years  would  see  the  end  of 
organized  religion  in  the  commonwealth.  Rev.  Dr.  Samuel 
Spring  shortly  before  Andover  Seminary  was  opened,  ven- 
tured to  hope  that  it  might  gather,  within  his  Hfetime,  as 
large  a  company  of  theological  students  as  a  dozen  within 
its  class  rooms.  The  attendance  the  first  year  was  thirty- 
six,  and  more  than  fifteen  hundred  students  were  there  edu- 
cated within  the  next  forty  years.  It  would  have  been  a 
far-seeing  man,  indeed,  who,  standing  at  the  beginning  of 
McCormick  Theological  Seminary,  could  have  pictured  to 
himself  its  present  multiplicity  of  courses,  or  conceived  of 
its  existing  wealth  of  material  equipment.  It  is,  therefore, 
with  great  diffidence  as  to  the  value  of  any  opinion  now 
expressed  that  the  speaker  ventures  to  suggest  what  may 
be  some  of  the  ideals  of  this  institution  of  learning  a  half- 
century  in  the  future. 

The  only  basis  on  which  such  a  prognostication  can  be 
made  is  to  be  found  in  the  tendencies  of  the  recent  past  and 
the  present.  These  are  likely  to  project  themselves  into  the 
future,  if  not  for  half  a  century,  at  least  for  the  years  imme- 
diately to  come.  Any  adjustment  of  work  which  takes  into 
view  the  needs  of  our  own  age  and  frankly  endeavors  to 
enable  our  schools  of  ministerial  training  to  meet  them  with 
greater  efficiency,  is  likely,  to  say  the  least,  to  be  adapted 
to  the  immediate  future  and  to  represent  "ideals  for  use- 
fulness in  the  coming  half -century. " 

Looking  at  the  existing  situation,  we  see  that  it  is  marked, 
and  has  long  been  characterized,  by  the  steady  broadening 

99 


j^cCormitfe  €l)eDlogical  ^eminarp 

of  the  field  of  Christian  service.  The  constant  multiplica- 
tion of  agencies  for  doing  the  work  of  Christ  in  the  world, 
and  the  ever  increasing  recognition  of  the  breadth  and  va- 
riety of  the  work  to  be  done,  have  long  been  outstanding 
features  of  our  religious  life.  A  century  ago  the  conception 
of  Christian  service  was  relatively  extremely  simple.  It 
involved  little  more  than  the  implantation  and  nourishment 
of  the  individual  Christian  life  by  the  church,  through  preach- 
ing, the  Word  of  God,  prayer,  and  praise.  The  Sunday 
school  was  then  but  beginning  among  us.  The  prayer- 
meeting  was  gaining  its  first  foothold.  The  Young  Men's 
Christian  Association  was  unknown.  All  the  multiform 
varieties  of  missionary  activity  at  home  and  abroad  were 
but  in  their  infancy  in  our  land.  The  urban  problem,  with 
its  attempts  at  solution  by  social  settlements,  good  govern- 
ment leagues,  and  outreaching  philanthropic  and  religious 
agencies,  was  then  far  in  the  future.  The  work  of  the  church- 
es was  the  relatively  simple  problem  of  individual  salvation. 
The  question  in  ministerial  training  was  how  best  to  accom- 
plish the  comparatively  easy  task  of  providing  intelligent 
preachers  and  well  instructed  pastors.  Our  age  witnesses 
a  wholly  altered  situation.  The  differentiation  and  exten- 
sion of  religious  activities  has  come  in  as  with  a  flood.  Some, 
like  the  Sunday  school  and  the  missionary  enterprises,  the 
churches  have  heartily  welcomed;  but  many  more,  like  the 
Young  Men's  Christian  Association,  and  in  even  greater 
measure,  the  social  and  philanthropic  agencies  to  which 
reference  has  been  made,  have  been  allowed  to  slip  out  of 
the  control  of  the  church,  not  because  of  want  of  sympathy, 
but  because  of  the  lack  of  any  practical  conception  of  how 


Cl^eolasical  €tiutatxon 


they  could  be  brought  into  ajSihation  with  its  existing  insti- 
tutions. The  church  has  not  been  hostile.  Its  membership 
has,  in  general,  furnished  the  leadership  in  these  outreaching 
endeavors;  but,  divided  as  the  church  has  been  by  denom- 
inational barriers,  and  emphasizing  the  individual  rather 
than  the  social  nature  of  salvation,  it  has  not  known  how 
to  claim  for  itself  a  large  portion  of  the  growing  religious 
endeavors  of  our  time.  The  result  has  been  that,  though 
the  activities  of  the  church  are  manifoldly  greater  than  a 
century  ago,  they  are  not  manifold  enough  to  hold  full  posses- 
sion of  the  field  of  service.  The  church's  conception  of 
its  mission  has  not  kept  pace  with  the  development  of  really 
Christian  effort,  its  actual  sphere  of  leadership  in  the  work 
of  Christ  in  the  world  is  therefore  relatively  less,  and,  as  a 
consequence,  its  influence  in  the  life  of  the  present  is  not 
proportionately  what  it  once  was.  The  greatest  problem 
of  the  church  in  the  age  in  which  we  live  is  how  to  extend 
its  leadership  so  that  that  influence  may  include  the  man- 
ifold forms  of  Christian  service.  Far  too  often  we  are  told 
that  this  or  that  type  of  Christhke  service  is  not  the  church's 
''sphere,"  as  if  anything  that  tends  to  make  God's  Kingdom 
come  on  earth  as  it  is  in  heaven  should  be  outside  the  leader- 
ship of  Christ's  organized  disciples. 

What  is  true  of  the  church  in  its  failure  to  grasp  the  oppor- 
tunities which  enlarging  conceptions  of  Christian  service 
have  offered,  is,  the  speaker  believes,  true  in  even  larger 
measure  of  our  theological  seminaries.  If  the  church  has 
not  risen  to  the  largeness  of  its  growing  ideal,  the  schools  for 
the  training  of  its  leaders  have  been  even  more  backward. 
They  have  confined  their  work  almost  exclusively  to  prep- 


0lt€otmtth  €l)eoIogtcal  ^eminatp 

aration  for  the  pastorate;  and  even  here,  till  within  a  very- 
recent  period,  that  preparation  has  been  of  an  exceedingly 
technical  character.  The  conception  ingrained  into  the 
minds  of  men  at  the  Reformation  age,  by  the  great  revolt 
from  Rome,  and  the  emphasis  then  laid  on  the  supremacy 
of  the  Bible,  that  a  knowledge  of  its  original  languages, 
and  a  careful  training  in  a  well-buttressed  theological  system, 
if  supplemented  by  some  skill  in  the  preparation  of  sermons, 
were  the  sufficient  and  adequate  intellectual  preparations 
for  Christian  service,  has  dominated  our  seminaries  in  the 
past  and  still  to  a  large  extent  controls  them.  Far  be  it 
from  the  present  speaker  to  underestimate  the  value  of 
these  studies  in  their  proper  place  and  proportion;  but  he 
thinks  that  the  chorus  of  criticism  on  the  historic  theological 
curriculum  is  sufficiently  loud  to  make  pertinent  the  question, 
whether,  as  a  universal  curriculum  for  all  ministerial  training, 
it  meets  the  real  needs  of  the  present  or  equips  men  ade- 
quately for  contact  with  the  problems  by  which  they  are 
sure  to  be  confronted  when  they  pass  from  the  walls  of  the 
Seminary  to  the  great,  needy  world  outside. 

Within  the  last  few  years  in  almost  all  our  theological 
seminaries  the  inadequacy  of  the  historic  curriculum  has 
been  recognized,  and  vigorous  attempts  have  been  made  to 
supplement  its  onesidedness.  Courses  in  Christian  Sociol- 
ogy, in  Missions,  in  teaching,  in  pastoral  problems,  have 
been  added  and  have  undoubtedly  done  much  service.  But 
a  somewhat  wide  acquaintance  with  the  ministry  has  led 
the  speaker  to  question  whether  these  additions  to  the  older 
curriculum  have,  in  general,  been  sufficiently  thorough  to 
produce  any  considerable  result,  or  have  greatly  affected 


€l|colo5ical  €Ducation 


the  average  habit  of  ministerial  thought.  Take,  as  an  ex- 
ample, a  study  the  desirability  of  which  would,  he  believes, 
be  universally  admitted,  that  of  Christian  missions  at  home 
and  abroad;  one,  moreover,  in  which  some  instruction  is 
now  given  in  practically  all  our  schools  of  ministerial  training. 
If  one  can  credit  the  testimony  of  missionary  secretaries, 
confirmed  unfortunately  all  too  fully  by  one's  own  observa- 
tion, any  really  intelligent  grasp  of  the  missionary  situation 
by  our  average  ministry,  and  especially  by  our  younger 
ministry,  is  rare.  Those  who  really  feel  its  importance  are 
a  comparatively  small  minority,  and  the  want  of  effective 
pastoral  leadership  into  sympathetic  intelligence  respecting 
the  missionary  activities  of  our  churches  is  one  of  the  most 
serious  obstacles  to  the  progress  of  their  work.  Too  often 
a  group  of  good  women  in  the  congregation  has  a  more  vital 
and  comprehensive  sense  of  the  importance  of  this  mighty 
cause  than  the  pastor  who  is  supposedly  set  to  lead  them. 
Has  it  then  been  a  mistake  to  give  courses  on  missions? 
Not  at  all.  The  difficulty  has  been  not  that  courses  were 
given,  but  that  they  have  remained  a  slight  and  uninfluential 
element  in  the  training  of  the  future  minister.  If  it  is  an- 
swered that  this  result  is  almost  unavoidable;  that,  important 
as  the  study  of  missions  is,  we  cannot  give  it  a  larger  place 
than  at  present  in  an  already  overcrowded  curriculum,  the 
present  speaker  admits  the  force  of  the  objection.  He  has 
cited  the  study  of  missions  simply  as  an  illustration.  Where 
half  a  score  of  new  studies,  each  of  importance  in  itself,  are 
superimposed  on  a  curriculum  that  fifty  years  ago  was 
deemed,  in  their  absence,  sufficient  to  tax  a  student's  full 
strength  for  three  years,  the  result  can  be,  at  best,  but  a 

103 


^t€om\tth  €l)eolo0xcal  ^eminarp 

smattering,  and  in  a  large  degree  a  dissipation  of  energy 
and  attention.  The  endeavor  to  meet  the  present  situation 
by  giving  the  student,  in  addition  to  the  ancient  group  of 
supposedly  necessary  studies,  a  little  of  everything  new,  is 
recent,  but  it  has  been  pushed  in  some  of  our  seminaries 
to  great  lengths.  It  is  bound  to  prove  unsatisfactory  in  the 
end,  not  merely  because  it  is  at  war  with  all  thoroughness; 
but  because  it  is  contrary  to  what  our  age  is  finding  to  be 
the  true  method  in  all  other  departments  of  training. 

If  we  look  at  the  fields  of  medicine,  of  law,  of  engineering, 
of  business,  in  fact  at  almost  any  branch  of  human  activity, 
we  find  that  specialization  is  the  order  of  the  day.  The 
training  of  the  ministry  is  the  conspicuous  exception.  There 
multiphcation  of  subjects  of  study  is  the  rule.  Nor  can  it 
well  be  otherwise  if  our  seminaries  confine  themselves  to 
mere  pastoral  preparation.  The  position  of  the  modem 
pastor  was  not  inaptly  defined  by  the  occupant  of  the  pulpit 
of  one  of  the  largest  churches  in  the  East,  as  the  head  of  a 
"general  retail  business."  But  are  we  taking  a  broad 
enough  view  of  the  work  of  training  for  Christian  service 
in  confining  it  practically  to  preparation  for  the  pastorate? 
In  so  doing,  we  are  ministering  to  only  one  portion  of  the 
field  that  is  before  us.  We  are  limiting  as  needlessly  as  un- 
wisely the  leadership  of  our  theological  seminaries  in  meeting 
the  real  religious  situation  that  is  before  us  to-day.  With 
all  the  broadening  of  our  courses,  we  have  really  narrowed 
our  impact  on  the  Christian  life  of  the  age,  by  refusing 
to  expand  our  work  sufficiently,  and  to  recognize  that  the 
theological  school  ought  to  prepare  for  highly  specialized 


104 


€I)eDlo0ical  €tiucation 


leadership  in  many  fields  which  have  been  neglected  by  it 
through  too  narrow  a  conception  of  its  obligations. 

The  speaker  is  aware  of  the  limitations  of  a  pecuniary 
character  which  often  hamper  the  work  of  our  schools  of 
training  for  religious  leadership.  He  knows  well  that  bricks 
cannot  be  made  without  straw,  that  the  expansion  which 
seems  to  him  imperative  is  expensive,  and  that  theological 
schools  are  among  the  most  difficult  objects,  at  the  present 
time,  for  which  adequate  endowment  is  solicited.  But  he 
also  realizes  that  they  have  had  noble  benefactors  in  the 
past,  one  of  whom  we  honor  to-day,  and  he  believes  that 
the  very  breadth  of  the  enlargement  which  he  advocates, 
would  raise  up  new  friends  in  the  present.  His  task,  how- 
ever, is  not  to  show  how  these  modifications  could  be  fi- 
nanced; but  what,  in  his  judgment,  "should  be  the  Ideals 
of  the  Theological  Seminary  for  Usefulness  in  the  Coming 
Half-century. " 

First  of  all,  he  believes  that  the  Seminary  should  seek  an 
enlarged  vision  of  its  own  possibilities  for  usefulness.  It 
should  broaden  its  conception  of  its  duties  as  a  school  of 
preparation  not  for  one  particular  type  only,  but  for  many 
different  forms,  of  Christian  leadership.  In  so  doing  it 
will  necessarily  become  an  institution  of  many  different 
departments,  or  group  of  schools,  under  one  management 
and  inspired  by  one  purpose,  rather  than  a  single  instru- 
mentality for  training,  having  only  a  limited  service  in  view, 
and  presenting  only  one  basal  curriculum,  however  that 
fundamental  course  of  study  may  be  modified  by  relatively 
slight  excursions  into  newer  fields. 


105 


0lt€ntmith  €f)0ological  ^eminarp 

With  this  fundamental  change  in  the  conception  of  its 
relation  to  the  Christian  leadership  of  the  age  in  view,  certain 
obvious  and  familiar  divisions  of  training  work  present  them- 
selves, a  few  of  which  have  already  been  attempted,  here 
and  there,  in  a  partial  way,  but  which,  as  a  whole,  have  never 
been  logically  and  systematically  carried  out  among  us. 

The  Seminary  of  the  future  will  not  abandon  its  present 
task  of  training  for  the  historic  pastorate.  Whatever  other 
leadership  our  churches  require,  this  want  will  continue. 
It  is  that  for  which  the  Seminaries  were  originally  called 
into  being.  It  is  that  which  they  now  supply.  In  this 
training  for  the  average  pastorate  a  large  degree  of  variety 
in  the  objects  of  study,  even  at  the  cost  of  relative  super- 
ficiality, must  undoubtedly  find  a  place.  The  ordinary 
pastor  is  necessarily  a  man  who  must  know  something  of 
many  things,  for  the  demands  upon  his  leadership  are  most 
various.  To  the  speaker,  it  would  seem  that  the  proportion 
of  studies  for  the  pastorate  might  well  be  modified.  In  this 
age  of  specialization,  and  of  waning  confidence  in  the  suffi- 
ciency of  Greek  and  Hebrew  exegesis  in  the  modicum  pos- 
sible of  attainment  in  a  brief  theological  course  to  give  to 
the  preacher  the  most  useful  working  acquaintance  with 
the  Scriptures,  which  are  to  be  his  chief  object  of  exposition, 
it  may  well  be  asked,  in  all  honesty  of  self-searching,  whether 
the  time  now  devoted  to  Hebrew  and  Greek  is  not  propor- 
tioned by  the  dead  hand  of  tradition  rather  than  by  the 
demands  of  the  living  present.  Does  not  actual  experience, 
as  witnessed  by  the  testimony  of  many  among  us,  show  that 
for  the  average  pastor,  a  different  apportionment  of  the 
curriculum,  in  which  newer  studies,  unthought  of  when  this 

1 06 


€&eoiogxcaI  ^tiucation 


Seminary  was  founded,  but  now  pressing  for  recognition, 
should  have  larger  and  therefore  more  effective  place,  will 
more  fully  equip  him  for  his  actual  work  in  life?  But, 
however  this  highly  debatable  question  may  be  solved  in 
the  next  half- century,  the  training  of  the  average  student  for 
the  ordinary  pastorate  will  remain  one  of  the  prime  duties 
of  the  theological  school. 

Yet  even  in  the  training  of  pastors  some  differentiation 
of  duties  is  already  foreshadowed.  It  is  becoming  clear 
that  the  rural  parish,  as  distinguished  from  the  urban  com- 
munity, or  even  from  the  small  village,  presents  peculiar 
problems  of  leadership.  The  sociological  experience,  so 
valuable  in  certain  portions  of  our  cities,  the  economic 
grounding  and  the  special  knowledge  of  trades  unionism 
and  the  relations  of  labor  and  capital  that  may  be  highly 
useful  in  a  factory  village,  is  of  little  service  here.  It  may  be 
too  one-sided  and  technical  a  preparation  that  would  insist, 
as  has  recently  been  proposed  in  New  England,  that  training 
for  the  rural  pastorate  should  include  at  least  a  year  of  study 
in  an  agricultural  college,  or  the  agricultural  department 
of  a  state  university;  but  what  our  farming  communities 
most  need,  at  least  in  the  East,  is  a  leadership  that  can  not 
only  witness  to  the  gospel,  but  can  organize  the  forces  of 
society  for  moral  uplift,  intellectual  stimulus ,  and  even  clean 
amusement.  Some  essential  differentiation  of  the  ordinary 
curriculum  of  our  schools  is  desirable  for  the  equipment  of 
those  consecrated  young  men,  not  a  few,  to  whom  the  claims 
of  the  distinctly  rural  church  make  insistent  appeal. 

Or,  turn  to  a  sharply  contrasted  field,  our  teeming  cities. 
Why  should  not  the  theological  school  of  the  future  train 

107 


;^c€ormicft  Cfjeological  ^rminarp 

workers  who  design  the  devotion  of  their  lives  to  their  prob- 
lems ?  Is  it  enough  that  we  give  to  candidates  for  the  ministry 
some  knowledge  of  urban  conditions  among  a  mass  of  other 
subjects  of  study  ?  The  work  of  rescue,  of  social  uplift,  and 
of  city  betterment  has  become  a  distinct  form  of  service, 
engrossing  all  the  strength  of  those  who  enter  seriously  upon 
it.  It  is  one  of  the  most  Christ-like  of  occupations,  yet  one 
most  in  danger  of  sHpping  from  the  control  of  Christ's  organ- 
ized disciples  by  reason  of  their  failure  to  train  men  and 
women  distinctly  for  this  labor.  One  of  the  greatest  perils 
of  our  time  is  the  substitution  of  a  philanthropy  satisfied 
with  better  physical  and  intellectual  conditions  for  that 
ministry  to  the  spirit  which  can  alone  make  the  material 
and  mental  progress  of  abiding  worth.  Why  should  not 
the  seminary  of  the  future  train  for  social  service  those  who 
may  never  have  ordaining  hands  laid  upon  them,  but  to 
whom  the  Master  may  say  as  surely  as  to  any  in  our  time, 
''Inasmuch  as  ye  have  done  it  unto  the  least  of  these,  my 
brethen,  ye  have  done  it  unto  me"  ? 

A  further  ideal  of  the  seminary  of  the  future  is  to  be 
found,  I  believe,  in  the  training  of  leaders  in  religious  edu- 
cation, who  may  or  may  not,  like  the  social  workers  who  have 
just  been  mentioned,  enter  what  we  all  too  technically  call 
the  "ministry, "  but  for  whom  an  important  field  in  Christian 
service  is  making  ever  louder  demand.  Our  churches  are 
awakening  to  the  need  of  the  teacher  of  religion  as  never 
before.  A  just  dissatisfaction  with  the  pedagogical  attain- 
ments of  our  Sunday  Schools  widely  exists.  Our  colleges  and 
universities,  even  those  of  state  foundation  and  professedly 
secular  aim,  are  developing  Bible  study  among  their  students 

1 08 


€l)eologicaI  €bucation 


in  amazing  proportions.  The  teacher  is  needed,  and  is  all  too 
seldom  now  to  be  found.  What  is  demanded  is  not  a  few 
hours  in  the  principles  of  pedagogy  added  to  an  already  bur- 
dened pastoral  course;  but  a  direct  attempt  to  meet  a  real 
need,  by  the  training  of  those  who  may  give  their  entire 
lives  to  become  teachers  of  teachers,  who  may  organize 
and  in  some  cases  superintend  our  Sunday  Schools,  who  may 
foster  Bible  classes  in  our  cities,  and  systematize  with  learn- 
ing and  efficiency  the  voluntary  religious  instruction  in  our 
schools  and  colleges.  If  it  is  objected  that  such  men  could 
not  now  find  financial  support,  the  speaker  admits  the  justice 
of  the  criticism;  but  he  believes,  such  is  the  need  of  their 
work,  that  if  they  could  come  to  our  churches  with  the 
training  that  a  seminary  might  give  and  with  the  knowledge 
and  skill  that  special  preparation  would  supply,  the  financial 
difficulty  would  be  overcome. 

To  point  out  the  desirability  of  a  school  of  missionary 
training  for  work  abroad  and  among  our  foreign  races  in 
the  home  land  is  to  call  attention  to  a  need  now  generally 
recognized,  and  fortunately  in  some  measure  met.  Much 
more  adequate  provision  will,  however,  be  made  for  such 
training,  it  may  be  hoped,  in  the  seminary  of  the  future. 
The  Christian  progress  of  our  country,  as  well  as  the  spread 
of  the  Kingdom  of  God  in  fields  beyond  the  sea,  now  opening 
in  marvelous  fashion,  is  largely  bound  up  with  the  answer 
which  the  theological  school  of  the  next  few  years  will  give 
to  this  demand  to  go  forth  and  possess  the  land.  A  sacrifice 
of  our  possibility  of  leadership  in  training  here  is  the  aban- 
donment of  our  birthright. 

Scarcely  less  imperative  is  it  that  the  seminary  of  the  next 

109 


iWcCormicft  €l^eological  ^eminarp 

fifty  years  shall  make  provision  for  the  training  of  leaders 
in  the  work  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Association. 
That  organization  is  becoming  a  mighty  factor  in  the  re- 
ligious life  of  the  United  States  and  is  rapidly  extending  its 
efficient  usefulness  beyond  the  seas.  The  training  of  its 
secretaries  and  of  its  leaders  is  a  task  of  the  utmost  signifi- 
cance for  our  Christian  future.  Too  often  the  attitude  of 
our  theological  schools  has  been  one  of  aloofness,  as  if  the 
work  of  the  Christian  Association,  being  undenominational, 
was  outside  the  proper  interest  of  our  churches.  Sometimes 
an  unworthy  fear  has  been  expressed  lest  the  ministry  of 
those  churches  should  be  imperiled  in  its  supply  by  reason  of 
attraction  to  the  service  of  the  Young  Men's  Christian  Asso- 
ciation of  some  of  our  men  of  consecration  and  ability.  It 
is  high  time  that  we  of  the  theological  seminaries  should 
awaken  to  the  obligation  of  furnishing  to  these  leaders  of 
outreaching  Christianity  an  adequate  training.  Why  should 
we  leave  their  instruction  to  other  agencies,  which,  however 
warm-hearted  in  their  type  of  piety,  fall  far  short  of  the  in- 
tellectual ideals  which  should  characterize  such  service  ? 
To  do  so  is  to  neglect  a  most  important  section  of  our  proper 
work  in  training  the  religious  leaders  of  the  generation,  and 
it  is  a  neglect  which  reacts  upon  us  not  only  in  the  loss  of 
sympathy  for  our  own  aims  on  the  part  of  a  forceful  element 
in  the  Christian  community,  but  by  narrowing  unduly  our 
helpfulness  to  the  needs  of  the  time. 

It  was  questioned,  in  speaking  of  preparation  for  the 
average  pastorate,  whether  some  readjustment  of  the  his- 
toric emphases  of  the  curriculum  might  not  wisely  be  made. 
Whatever  diminution  of  weight  laid  on  older  subjects,  which 
were  once  the  well-nigh  exclusive  subjects  of  study,  might 


€l)eolo0ical  <tBtiucatiDn 


then  result,  would  be  more  than  balanced  by  the  opportu- 
nities which  the  theological  seminary  ought  to  offer  to  the  man 
intent  upon  and  fitted  for  scholarly  research.  The  seminary 
will  recognize  that  he  is  the  exception;  but  for  the  reasons 
that  the  Christian  scholarship  of  our  country  so  largely 
looks  to  him  for  advancement,  and  from  him  the  instructors 
in  our  schools  of  ministerial  training  must  be  chiefly  re- 
cruited, he  is  an  exceptional  student  whom  the  seminaries 
cannot  afford  to  neglect  or  ignore.  They  have  not  neglected 
him  in  the  past;  but  we  may  believe  that,  in  ever  increasing 
measure,  our  theological  schools  will  become  centers  of 
productive  scholarly  research.  Probably  the  preparation 
for  this  work  will  be  largely  individual  or,  at  most,  in  small 
classes,  for  the  men  capable  in  high  degree  of  answering  to 
the  scholar's  vocation  will  never  be  very  numerous,  in  pro- 
portion to  the  whole  body  under  training  for  Christ-like 
service  in  its  many  fields.  The  seminary  must  make  large 
place  for  them  for  the  sake  of  its  own  life  and  for  the  cause 
that  it  is  set  to  advance.  A  church  without  scholarship, 
in  the  lofty  sense  of  that  term,  is  like  an  army  without  trained 
leadership,  and  not  the  least  of  the  ideals  of  the  seminary 
must  be  to  supply  this  high  intellectual  preparation  in  ever 
fuller  measure. 

The  picture  which  we  have  set  before  us  of  the  ideals  for 
usefulness  which  should  mark  the  theological  seminary  for 
the  next  half -century  is  one,  therefore,  which  demands  great 
enlargement  of  its  present  equipment,  and  what  is  more 
vital,  a  broadening  of  its  sense  of  duty  for  service  to  the 
churches.  The  vision  of  the  seminary  of  our  hopes  must 
be  one  great  enough  to  comprehend  the  needs  of  the  age. 
That  seminary  must  strive  to  train  for  leadership,  not  in 


;:^c€ormtcfe  €I)eological  ^eminarp 

any  narrow  conception  of  the  Christian  ministry,  but  wher- 
ever leadership  is  demanded  in  our  Christian  fellowship. 
Thus,  and  thus  alone,  can  our  schools  of  theology,  as  we 
still  call  them,  describing  them  by  a  fragment  only  of  their 
work,  meet  efifectively  the  demands  of  the  years  immediately 
to  come.  They  must  be,  in  the  broadest  sense,  schools  of 
Christian  leadership.  They  must  expand  in  their  concep- 
tion of  their  work  at  least  as  rapidly  as  the  widening  vision 
of  the  church  sees  more  clearly  the  breadth  of  its  mission  to 
the  world.  That  they  have  not  enlarged  their  scope  with 
sufficient  promptness  in  the  past  is,  as  has  been  pointed  out, 
a  main  cause  of  the  criticism  to  which  they  are  subjected, 
and  a  reason  why  their  usefulness,  great  as  it  is,  is  less  than 
it  might  have  become.  But,  as  one  looks  at  the  past,  one 
cannot  but  be  optimistic  as  to  the  future.  If  our  theological 
seminaries  have  not  done  all  they  might,  they  have,  never- 
theless, done  much.  A  comparison,  for  instance,  of  the 
McCormick  Seminary  which  took  up  its  abode  in  Chicago 
half  a  century  ago  with  the  institution  which  we  honor  to- 
day shows  an  immense  contrast.  There  is  among  them 
evidence  of  life,  of  growth,  of  enlarging  vision.  May  we 
not  rightfully  trust  that,  under  the  divine  guidance,  our 
seminaries  will  go  forward  in  the  coming  half-century  to 
furnish  that  broad  and  general  training  for  leadership  in  all 
important  departments  of  Christian  usefulness  which  should 
be  theirs  to  offer  and  impart?  And  let  us,  whose  lot  has 
been  cast  in  their  service,  strive,  as  God  gives  us  light  and 
opportunity,  to  make  this  vision  of  larger  employment  in 
the  advancing  Kingdom,  not  a  vision  simply  but  an  accom- 
plished reality,  not  a  hope  merely  but  an  achieved  result. 


aiumni  Conference 

MINISTERIAL   LEADERSHIP 

The  Seminary  Chapel,  Tuesday  Afternoon,  November  Second, 
Nineteen  Hundred  and  Nine,  at  Three  o'Clock. 


ORDER   OF   EXERCISES 

THE    REV.   HENRY   WEBB    JOHNSON,    D.  D. 

South  Bend 
Presiding 

Hymn.     "O  Grant  Us  Light." 

Scripture  Lesson The  Rev.  Selby  F.  Vance,  D.D., 

Lane  Theological  Seminary 

I  Timothy  iv:  6-16 
Prayer The  Rev.  J.  B.  Garritt,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D., 

Hanover  College 

Address The  Rev.  J.  Ross  Stevenson,  D.  D., 

Baltimore 

Music Seminary  Double  Quartette 

Address The  Rev.  Edward  Yates  Hill,  D.  D., 

Philadelphia 

Hymn.     "Fling  Out  the  Banner." 

Address.     .     .     .     The  Rev.  Charles  L.  Thompson,  D.  D.,  LL.  D., 

New  York 

Gloria. 

Benediction The  Rev.  William  C.  Covert,  D.  D., 

Chicago 
113 


ittintjSterfal  iLealierjsi^tp  O^rougl^ 
i^reacl^ing 

BY  THE  REV.  J.  ROSS  STEVENSON,  D.  D. 

LEADING  ministers  have  been,  as  a  rule,  effective 
preachers.  The  ambassador  of  Christ  has  a  gospel 
to  proclaim,  and  his  commission  carries  in  it  the  specific 
command,  "Preach  the  Word."  Christ,  our  great  Exam- 
ple in  the  ministry  of  reconciliation,  took  for  His  first  mes- 
sianic text,  "  The  Spirit  of  the  Lord  is  upon  me,  because  He 
anointed  me  to  preach  good  tidings  to  the  poor.  He  has 
sent  me  to  proclaim  release  to  the  captives,  and  recovery  of 
sight  to  the  blind,  to  set  at  liberty  them  that  are  bruised,  to 
proclaim  the  acceptable  year  of  the  Lord."  The  apostles, 
filled  with  the  Holy  Spirit,  were  so  jealous  of  their  mission 
that  they  refused  to  serve  tables,  or  to  give  themselves  to 
aught  else  save  prayer  and  the  ministry  of  the  word.  The 
early  church  won  its  way  throughout  the  Empire  because  it 
was  led  by  those  who  ceased  not  to  declare  the  whole  counsel 
of  God;  and  ever  since  that  time,  religion  has  advanced  or 
declined  in  direct  proportion  to  the  power  or  weakness  of 
preaching.  The  dark  ages  came  on  through  the  eclipse 
of  the  pulpit.  The  Reformation  was  a  return  to  the  apos- 
tolic evangel.  The  great  evangelical  movements  were  led  by 
those  who  had  a  gospel  to  proclaim,  and  recall  the  names  of 
Wesley,  of  Whitefield,  Jonathan  Edwards,  the  Tennents, 
Nettleton,  Finney  and  Moody.  Just  as  the  Church  of  the 
living  God  is  the  pillar  and  ground  of  the  truth,  without 

IIS 


jmcCormicfe  €l)coIogicaI  ^eminatp 

which,  as  one  of  the  early  Fathers  pointed  out,  society  would 
fall  and  disintegrate,  so  "speaking  the  truth  in  love"  is 
necessary  for  the  edifying  of  the  church,  till  we  all  attain 
unto  the  unity  of  the  faith  and  of  the  knowledge  of  the  Son 
of  God.  Preaching,  then,  we  would  maintain,  is  an  essen- 
tial function  in  ministerial  leadership,  and  is  the  chief  objec- 
tive of  seminary  training.  Self-evident  as  this  may  seem  to 
some,  it  is  a  conception  of  the  ministry  which  needs  to  be  re- 
asserted and  steadfastly  maintained  in  our  time,  for  several 
reasons. 

First,  because  of  the  disfavor  into  which  preaching  has 
come,  in  certain  quarters  at  least.  We  may  see  it  in  the 
demand  for  short  sermons,  in  the  emphasis  that  is  placed 
upon  the  service,  the  other  parts  of  public  worship,  in  the 
increase  of  ritual  and  in  the  decrease  of  church  attendance. 
We  are  told  that  preaching  does  not  have  the  place  it  once 
had,  when  the  minister  was  the  only  educated  man  in  the 
community.  The  increase  of  intelligence,  the  multiplication 
of  good  books,  the  wide-reaching  service  of  the  press,  have 
made  pulpit  discourse  no  longer  a  necessary  means  of  edi- 
fication. It  must  be  conceded  that  the  office  of  preacher  no 
longer  has  the  special  sanctity  about  it  that  it  once  had, 
and  that  the  minister  cannot  command  a  hearing  simply 
because  he  had  had  the  conventional  training,  has  gotten 
his  orders,  and  knows  the  pulpit  dialect;  and  yet,  after  all 
qualifications  have  been  made,  the  preacher  who  can  repre- 
sent Christ,  who  has  a  gospel  to  proclaim,  is  more  in  demand 
to-day  than  he  has  ever  been.  When  Mr.  Moody  was  once 
asked  whether  the  ministry  was  not  over-crowded,  he  replied: 
"  It  depends  upon  whether  the  men  who  are  in  the  ministry 

ii6 


3leatier^l)ip  Cljrougl)  ^teacfting 


have  been  called  of  God  to  preach  Christ.  If  they  have, 
there  are  not  too  many  of  them."  No  earnest  Christian 
man  would  doubt  for  a  minute  that  there  is  a  place  for  the 
God-called,  God-equipped  preacher  of  grace  or  truth;  but 
even  the  world  is  waiting  for  such  men,  and  is  ready  to  give 
them  a  respectable  hearing.  Prominent  churches  are  search- 
ing the  country  over,  not  for  scholars,  nor  administrators,  nor 
writers,  nor  even  pastors,  but  for  men  who  can  preach;  and 
when  some  voice  that  can  speak  with  authority  is  raised,  a 
Beecher,  a  Brooks,  or  a  Spurgeon,  or  a  McLaren,  when  a 
Morgan  or  a  Jowett  can  be  heard,  multitudes  say,  "  Now  are 
we  all  here  present  before  God,  to  hear  all  things  that  are 
commanded  thee  of  God. "  I  believe  that  it  can  be  shown  that 
a  larger  number  of  people  are  eager  to  hear  good  preaching 
than  has  been  true  since  apostolic  days;  and  yet  even  pious 
Christians  discourage  their  sons  from  entering  the  ministry. 
Ministers  themselves  are  known  to  advise  their  sons  to  enter 
some  other  profession,  and  the  recent  decline  in  the  number 
of  candidates  for  this  high  calling  can  only  be  interpreted  as 
a  depreciation  of  what  was  once  regarded  as  the  leading  pro- 
fession. Surely  there  is  needed  a  campaign  of  education  as 
to  the  wisdom  of  God  in  ordaining  that  by  the  foolishness 
of  preaching  men  should  be  saved. 

Again,  insistence  needs  to  be  placed  upon  the  importance 
of  preaching  because  of  the  present  unparalleled  hindrances 
to  pulpit  efficiency.  The  very  complexity  of  modern  life 
makes  it  increasingly  difficult  for  busy  men  and  women  to 
listen  to  a  spiritual  discourse.  There  never  was  a  time  when 
people  were  apparently  so  busy  as  they  are  now,  and  there 
is  no  country  in  which  work  is  the  tyrant  that  it  is  in  America. 

117 


iHcCotmicfe  €ljeological  ^eminarp 

Our  dominant  characteristic,  as  Matthew  Arnold  once  told 
us,  is  the  worship  of  machinery.  The  means  of  speedy  com- 
munication make  us  touch  elbows  with  every  man,  rush 
along  with  the  crowd,  and  respond  to  the  agitating  spur, 
"step  Hvely. "  The  sanctity  of  the  home  has  been  broken 
up,  and  all  rest  of  spirit  taken  away  by  an  atmosphere  charged 
with  interests  of  worldly  pleasure  and  ambition,  and  re- 
sounding with  the  echoes  of  business  talk  and  social  gossip. 
The  Sabbath  morning's  holy  calm  is  invaded  by  a  colossal 
edition  of  the  daily  paper,  serving  as  a  dead-weight  to  any 
heavenly  aspirations,  and  as  a  deterrent  to  church  attendance 
which  the  short  and  thin  religious  notices  cannot  overcome. 
Those  who  are  able  to  rise  above  the  deadly  influences  of 
secular  pursuits  and  find  their  way  into  the  sanctuary  are 
often  so  be-drugged  with  irreligious  stimulants  that  there  is 
no  place  in  their  system  for  the  spiritual  tonic  of  the  sermon. 
"One-half  hour  to  raise  the  dead  in"  makes  the  issues  of 
life  and  of  eternity  to  hang  upon  the  preacher  and  his  message. 
The  situation  is  made  all  the  more  difficult  by  the  fact  that 
the  minister's  own  life  has  become  immeasurably  complex. 
Modern  ecclesiastical  architecture  has  made  over  the  pastor's 
study  into  an  office,  with  an  administrative  staff  at  hand 
awaiting  his  orders;  with  call-bells  and  telephones  reaching 
in  all  directions,  and,  like  the  New  Jerusalem,  with  gates  on 
every  side  which  shut  not  day  nor  night.  The  organized 
activities  of  the  church  have  almost  exhausted  the  alphabet 
for  appropriate  initial  names,  and  for  each  society  the  pastor 
must  be  the  god-father.  The  Laymen's  Missionary  Move- 
ment, with  its  wonderful  possibihties  for  good,  has  caused 
many  a  pastor  to  look  up  and  lift  up  his  head  in  the  assur- 

ii8 


Iteatier^ftip  €l)tougl)  ^reacljing 


ance  that  his  redemption  was  drawing  nigh;  for  let  the  men  put 
their  shoulders  to  the  wheel,  and  the  chariot  of  Israel  will  get 
such  a  push  as  will  enable  panting  clergymen  to  slack  their 
pull  and  catch  breath.  But  just  as  I  came  to  this  point  in  the 
preparation  of  this  paper,  I  received  a  message  from  a  layman 
who  is  arranging  for  the  approaching  Laymen's  Missionary 
Movement  Convention  to  be  held  in  Baltimore,  and  it  ran 
something  like  this.  "The  situation  is  critical.  Men  are 
not  enrolling  because  the  ministers  are  not  awake.  If  the 
clergy  can  only  be  aroused,  they  may  yet  lead  the  forces  on 
to  victory."  And  since  every  new  organization  may  mean 
an  increased  burden  for  the  ministerial  leader,  one  can  sym- 
pathize with  Joseph  Cook  when  he  said,  "  Only  one  addition- 
al organization  is  necessary,  and  that  is  an  organization  to 
prevent  further  organizations."  Besides  the  good  which 
the  busy  pastor  would  like  to  do  himself,  there  is  all  the  good 
which  other  people  want  him  to  do;  and  the  Macedonian 
calls  are  fresh  every  morning,  repeated  at  noon-day,  and 
new  every  evening.  It  is  no  wonder  then  that  the  sermon, 
if  not  two  of  them,  is  crowded  up  into  a  small  comer  of  the 
week,  so  as  to  emerge  on  Sunday  morning,  a  homely,  starved, 
miserably  clad  waif,  concerning  which  the  preacher  can  only 
say  in  the  language  of  Touchstone  when  he  introduced  his 
rustic  bride  "an  ill-favored  thing,  but  mine  own."  And 
then  his  people  reward  him  by  saying  something  like  this, 
**  Our  minister  is  a  good  man,  or  a  faithful  pastor,  or  a  splen- 
did administrator,  but  if  the  truth  must  be  told,  he  is  not  a 
preacher."  Blessed  is  he  that  overcometh!  that  limits 
his  work  to  the  one  thing  needful,  as  Dr.  Pusey  advised  Canon 
Liddon  to  do  at  the  beginning  of  his  ministerial  career. 

119 


j^cCormicft  €l)eoIogxcal  ^cminarp 

For,  as  Lord  Acton  once  declared,  "Mastery  is  acquired  by 
resolved  limitation,"  and  it  is  pulpit  mastery  that  congre- 
gations most  desire.  They  will  excuse  many  minor  deficien- 
cies in  the  man  who  knows  how  to  preach;  but  if  hungry 
sheep  look  up  and  are  not  fed,  ministerial  leadership  counts 
for  little. 

Still  more,  there  needs  to  be  a  new  advocacy  of  preaching 
because  of  the  noble  standard  to  which  it  is  to  conform. 
Though  to  preach  well  a  minister  must  do  nothing  else, 
there  is  a  vast  deal  which  he  must  be  and  do  and  have  in 
order  to  fulfill  his  calling.  To  dwell  upon  this  would  only 
be  repeating  the  substance  of  what  we  have  learned  in  this 
institution,  what  is  embodied  in  that  prize  book  of  homilet- 
ical  leadership,  "The  Ideal  Ministry,"  and  has  been  veri- 
fied in  our  own  experience.  In  the  plea  which  Bishop  Brent 
has  made  for  leadership  in  his  course  of  lectures  at  Harvard, 
holding  this  up  as  the  goal  of  education,  he  lays  down  a 
number  of  principles  which  apply  with  pecuhar  force  to  the 
preacher.  For  example,  "A  leader  is  one  who  goes  before, 
who  keeps  in  advance  of  the  crowd,  but  so  influencing  them 
as  to  attach  them  to  his  ideal  of  selfhood.  Obviously  and 
of  necessity  he  is  a  social  personage  who  has  the  power  of 
enabling  other  people  to  see  what  he  sees,  to  feel  what  he 
feels,  to  desire  what  he  desires."  This  accords  with  the 
priestly  function  of  the  preacher,  who  taken  from  among 
men  is  appointed  for  men  in  things  pertaining  to  God,  who 
can  bear  gently  with  the  ignorant  and  the  erring,  for  that 
he  himself  is  compassed  with  infirmity,  and  by  reason  thereof 
is  bound  as  for  the  people,  so  also  for  himself,  to  offer  for 
sins.     This  sympathetic  element  in  the  preacher's  character, 


%tahtt$t^ip  €l)rou0f)  ^reacl)ing 


this  knowledge  of,  and  identification  with  humanity,  this 
at-one-ment  with  his  fellow  men,  this  vital  touch  with  life, 
is  a  most  comprehensive  function,  and  is  most  essential  for 
the  pulpit  if  the  minister  is  to  be  anything  more  than  a  book- 
worm, a  dry-as-dust  theologian,  or  a  homiletical  scarecrow; 
and  it  is  what  the  church  is  trying  to  get  from  our  theological 
seminaries,  by  way  of  training,  when  it  demands,  though 
often  most  unintelligibly,  a  more  practical  discipline.  Bishop 
Brent  also  emphasizes  in  "Leadership"  the  power  of  fellow- 
ship with  the  Divine,  along  with  which  can  be  put  the  power 
of  a  blameless  life;  for  President  Wilson  is  right  in  maintaining 
that  the  only  profession  which  consists  in  being  something 
and  does  not  consist  in  anything  else  is  the  ministry.  I  have 
been  in  a  position  to  learn  a  great  deal  about  the  ministry 
of  John  Hall,  that  had  in  it  such  conspicuous  marks  of  lead- 
ership, and  William  M.  Evarts  explained  it  all  when  he  said, 
"The  man  behind  the  sermon  is  the  secret  of  John  Hall's 
power."  If  the  preacher  is  to  be  "the  friend  and  helper  of 
those  who  would  live  in  the  Spirit,"  if  he  would  convince 
men  that  there  is  possible  a  life  fed  from  no  earthly  source, 
but  having  the  power  of  God  in  it  and  related  directly  to  the 
unseen  and  eternal,  he  will  be  not  only  a  man,  but  a  man  of 
God,  in  touch  with  the  other  world,  and  revealing  by  his 
whole  spirit  that  the  things  if  which  he  speaks  in  the  pulpit 
are  tremendous  realities.  Any  pulpit  to-day  is  occupied  by 
a  spiritual  leader,  and  on  that  account  well  occupied,  which 
has  in  it  a  man  who  is  full  of  grace  and  truth.  These  were 
the  two  conspicuous  qualities  in  the  character  and  work  of 
the  Lord  and  Master  of  us  all,  grace  and  truth;  and  of  His 
fulness  must  the  preacher  ever  receive,  if  he  is  to  represent 


Christ  and  be  the  spiritual  leader  of  men.  Full  of  grace,  of 
love  to  God  and  men  which  goes  beyond  conventional  limits 
and  is  not  satisfied  with  average  generosity;  full  of  truth,  a 
sincere  thinker,  an  honest  speaker,  able  to  draw  the  thing  as 
he  sees  it  for  the  God  of  things  as  they  are,  a  man  of  reality 
whose  representations  conform  always  to  fact,  whose  phrase- 
ology does  not  go  beyond  his  personal  experience,  such  an 
one  as  Cowper  has  so  beautifully  described: 

"Simple,  grave,  sincere, 
In  doctrine  uncorrupt,  in  language  plain 
And  plain  in  manner,  decent,  solemn,  chaste, 
And  natural  of  gesture,  much  impressed 
Himself,  as  conscious  of  his  awful  charge. 
And  anxious  mainly  that  the  flock  he  feeds 
May  feel  it  too :   affectionate  in  look 
And  tender  in  address,  as  well  becomes 
A  messenger  of  grace  to  guilty  men. 
He  stablishes  the  strong,  restores  the  weak. 
Reclaims  the  wanderer,  binds  the  broken  heart ; 
And,  armed  himself  in  panoply  complete. 
Of  heavenly  temper,  furnishes  with  arms 
Bright  as  his  own,  and  trains  by  every  rule 
Of  holy  discipHne  to  glorious  war 
The  sacramental  host  of  God's  elect." 

There  never  has  been  a  time  when  such  leaders  were  more 
in  demand.  They  are  the  kind  which  the  honored  patron 
of  this  institution  had  in  mind  when  he  gave  so  freely  of  his 
bounty  for  theological  education;  and  as  it  has  always  been 
the  aim  of  our  beloved  Alma  Mater  to  produce  such  serv- 
ants of  Jesus  Christ,  may  we  who  are  sons  of  the  seminary 
show  that  the  faithful  instruction  we  have  received  here  has 
not  been  in  vain  in  the  Lord. 


PLinimtial  leatierjSl^fp 

BY  THE  REV.  EDWARD  YATES  HILL,  D.  D. 

MINISTERIAL  leadership  must  have  its  inspiration. 
This  is  found  in  nothing  more  surely  than  in  a  vision 
of  the  goal  toward  which  ministers  are  to  work:  the  trans- 
formation of  the  world  consciousness  by  the  power  of  true 
religion.  It  is  an  aggressive  world  campaign.  The  greatness 
and  comprehensiveness  of  the  task  as  a  whole  lends  dignity, 
meaning  and  enthusiasm  to  every  local  phase  of  the  enter- 
prise. There  can  be  no  success  in  the  whole  unless  there  is 
success  in  the  parts.  Every  minister  occupies  a  strategic 
place  in  the  great  economy  of  our  Lord  touching  the  evan- 
gelization of  the  world. 

If  the  minister  will  so  lead  his  church  as  to  secure  from 
it  the  contribution  it  ought  to  make  to  the  extension  of  the 
kingdom  of  God  he  ought  to  know  at  the  outset  what  de- 
mands are  upon  him.  First  of  all,  he  must  be  a  frank, 
courageous,  manly  man,  absolutely  real,  commanding  con- 
fidence, a  man  who  adores  the  character  of  God  revealed  in 
Christ,  consecrated  to  the  work  of  developing  true  religious 
life  and  thorough-going  morality  in  the  people.  Further- 
more, he  must  have  strong  mental  fiber,  sound  judgment  and 
self-control,  wide  sympathies,  keen  insight  and  quick  adapt- 
abilities, if  he  will  be  efficient. 

We  may  take  it  for  granted,  in  this  paper,  that  he  has  his 
theological  equipment,  that  he  has  thoroughly  studied  the 
truth  of  God  in  its  historical  unfolding  and,  in  the  fight  of 
opposing  theories,  has  come  to  sofid  personal  convictions. 

123 


j^cCormtcfe  €I)colDgicaI  J^cminarp 

But  it  is  not  enough  that  he  has  lying  back  in  his  mind 
and  heart  these  rich  stores  of  thought  and  conviction.  What 
he  knows  must  be  known  in  the  terms  of  to-day.  "The 
substance  remains,  the  forms  change  and  pass."  His 
theology,  in  reaHty,  cannot  be  very  new  if  it  is  true;  but  if  it 
is  true,  it  will  be  continually  new  to  him,  that  is,  it  will  be 
always  in  process  of  revitalization  in  his  own  spirit.  His 
growing  soul  and  the  changing  world  will  mean  deeper 
insights  and  more  precious  values.  But  it  is  precisely  the 
forms  in  which  the  mind  of  to-day  does  its  thinking  which 
must  be  respected  if  the  modern  practical  man  will  not  rebel 
and  turn  away.  There  need  be  no  fear  that  the  modern 
man  created,  as  all  others,  in  the  image  of  God,  belonging  to 
this  human  race  holding  within  itself  the  Christ,  will  fail 
to  grasp  (if  only  he  can  be  made  to  pay  attention)  the  great 
realities  when  they  are  clearly,  simply,  earnestly  presented 
in  the  thought-forms  of  his  time. 

Moreover,  and  this  I  cannot  emphasize  too  strongly,  he 
must  know  the  life  of  to-day.  It  is  upon  people  that  he  is 
to  bring  to  bear  all  his  resources.  The  people,  weary, 
confused,  visionless  and  wrong,  call  for  the  application  to 
their  needs  of  all  he  is  and  knows.  The  plea>  therefore,  is 
primal  that  ministerial  leadership  demands  the  most  careful 
and  sympathetic  study  of  man  as  he  is  to-day.  He  lives  in  a 
new  world.  Fifty  years  ago  it  was  first  being  entered.  It 
is  a  world  thrilled  with  a  passion  for  knowledge,  insistent 
upon  facts,  seeking  laws  and  the  control  of  powers;  a  world 
reduced  to  a  neighborhood,  with  huddled  aggregations,  close 
intimacies,  increasing  interdependencies,  bewildering  com- 
plexities; a  world  of  new,  economic,  industrial  and  social 

124 


I^ini^tetial  3leatier^l)ip 


relations,  with  complicated  ethics,  and  withal  so  much  to  be 
thought  about  and  done  that,  in  the  very  moment  when 
science  would  make  all  clear  and  orderly,  there  is  distressing 
confusion  and  bewilderment.  Moods  created  by  the  con- 
ditions of  life  are  having  vast  reactionary  effect  upon  religious 
belief.  Ultimate  and  dominant  ideas  of  life  are  being 
conceived  not  in  the  processes  of  ordered  thought  but  in  the 
enforced  processes  of  life  itself.  Leaders  must  know  their 
times,  the  intellectual,  temperamental,  and  dispositional 
moods  of  their  generation,  the  spirit  of  the  present  as  both  a 
product  and  a  tendency.  They  must  know  the  social 
psychology  of  the  hour,  the  laws  that  govern  changes  in  the 
ideas  and  ideals  of  the  people,  where  and  why  and  under 
what  regulative  thoughts  and  conditions  the  people  move; 
what  the  present  involvement  means  to  their  conceptions  of 
God,  religion,  morality  and  the  human  soul  itself.  Unless 
the  minister  can  see  clearly  the  moods  and  mental  habits, 
the  ideals,  the  moral  and  spiritual  reactions,  the  unrest,  eager 
inquisitiveness  and  cautious  wariness  which  the  new  social 
forces  are  producing,  he  cannot  approach  the  current  re- 
ligious problems  with  adequate  sympathy  and  intelligence. 
This  psychologic  penetration  of  life  in  both  its  social  and 
individual  aspects  never  was  so  necessary.  Never  was  there 
such  need,  if  equipment  is  to  be  thorough,  to  know  the  laws 
of  human  nature.  And  the  demand  in  these  exacting  days 
is  for  something  more  than  a  mere  common  sense  regarding 
life;  it  is  for  a  clear,  definite,  conscious  formulation  of  those 
principles  which  have  been  experimentally  and  scientifically 
ascertained  as  governing  individual  and  social  actions  and 
reactions  in  the  moral  and  religious  realms. 

125 


jmcCotmitfe  €I)eoIogical  ^eminarp 

Speaking  generally,  a  minister  has  his  leadership  and 
contributes  his  part  toward  the  development  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  through  the  relation  which  he  holds  to  the  people  of 
his  own  church  and  the  community.  His  power  for  good  he 
sways  through  them.  His  own  community  is  the  point  of 
appHcation  of  all  he  is  and  knows.  If  he  fails  there,  he  is  a 
failure  indeed.  He  must  discover  the  practical  methods  of 
securing  from  the  local  church  the  contribution  it  ought  to 
make  to  the  community.  Let  him  solemnly  bear  in  mind 
that  the  church  in  our  day,  like  every  other  institution,  is 
being  called  upon  to  prove  its  right  to  be  by  showing  what 
service  it  can  render  to  the  betterment  of  man,  and  that  this 
applies  to  his  local  church  in  its  own  field. 

His  question  then  is.  How  shall  his  church  be  admin- 
istered, organized  and  nurtured  so  as  to  develop  the  individual 
members  and  with  them  and  through  them  influence  effect- 
ually the  immediate  environment. 

First  of  all  the  minister  should  know  his  field  scientifically, 
have  expert  knowledge  of  the  conditions  and  forces  at  work 
within  the  territory,  see  what  ought  to  be  accomplished,  and 
how  it  may  be  accomplished.  Unless  he  knows  his  material 
that  he  is  to  work  upon,  the  co-operative,  charitable,  correc- 
tive, and  educational  agencies  already  existent,  and  the  proc- 
esses to  be  employed,  how  can  he  be  effective?  He  needs 
to  know,  as  some  one  has  said,  the  whole  "anatomy,  physiol- 
ogy, pathology  and  materia  medica"  of  the  situation.  In 
spirit,  aim  and  method  his  church  should  become,  through 
his  leadership,  pastoral  to  the  community  at  large. 

We  cannot  take  too  seriously  our  local  obligations.  The 
immediate  community  is  a  world  in  itself.     Professor  Hal- 

126 


j^ini^terial  3leatier^l)ip 


sey,  of  Lake  Forest,  once  said  to  me:  "A  small  town  is  an 
epitome  of  society  and  presents  a  laboratory  in  which  there 
is  every  element  at  work  constituting  the  whole  modern 
social  problem."  Moreover,  the  immediate  community  has 
enough  needs,  samples  of  world-wide  conditions,  offers 
sufficient  avenues  of  sympathy,  to  stir  impulses  impelling 
that  church  into  work  of  world-wide  character.  Indeed, 
where  you  find  the  greatest  needs  around  a  church  and  an 
honest  effort  to  answer  those  needs  you  will  find  the  most  far- 
reaching  missionary  desires. 

Take,  for  example,  the  downtown  church  in  the  busi- 
ness center  or  among  the  very  poor.  Plainly  its  mission  is 
to  its  own  field  almost  exclusively.  And  yet  so  intimately 
does  such  a  church  come  into  contact  with  human  need  and 
so  deep  and  self-denying  is  the  consecration  of  those  who 
serve  those  needs,  that  the  old  down-town  church  is  very 
likely  to  show  the  finest  spiritual  and  moral  enthusiasm. 
The  immediate  burdens  so  press  upon  its  sympathies  that 
these  sympathies  overflow  in  responsiveness  to  those  of  like 
needs  in  the  ends  of  the  earth. 

It  is  all-important  that  the  minister  shall  not  only  know 
for  himself  but  shall  make  very  clear  in  the  consciousness  of 
his  own  people  what  are  his  church's  local  obligations.  It  is 
this  lack  of  true  definition  of  field  which  makes  of  many  of 
our  suburban  and  residential  churches  very  serious  problems. 
I  boldly  and  confidently  run  counter  to  the  prevailing  notion 
when  I  say  that  the  problem  of  our  downtown  churches,  even 
as  in  many  cases  they  must  flee  or  die,  is  not  so  serious  as 
that  of  those  other  churches  enjoying  the  prosperity  of 
growing   numbers   and   increasing   wealth,    located   where 

127 


Pit€ctmith  Cfjeological  ^eminatp 

there  are  no  pressing  needs  at  their  own  doors  and  where 
an  inadequate  ministerial  leadership  has  failed  to  define  the 
real  community  or  the  local  obligations  in  large  enough 
terms.  Such  a  church  may  indeed  present  a  large  missionary 
budget  but  too  often  untranslatable  into  terms  of  personal 
solicitude  and  self-sacrifice.  It  is  in  greatest  danger  from 
its  own  comforts,  congenialities,  self-complacencies,  and 
narrow  horizon.  The  minister  with  a  true  conception  of  that 
to  which  he  has  been  ordained,  who  leads  in  such  a  church, 
must  show  that  the  parish  really  includes  the  factory,  market, 
office  forces,  and  the  whole  vast  region  and  complicated 
problems  where  these  toilers  live.  Yes,  the  parish  includes 
the  surging  center  where  the  living  is  made  as  well  as  the 
retired  precincts  of  respectability  where  the  enrolled  com- 
municants are  quite  sure  they  are  at  home.  Save  the 
churches,  surrounded  by  cultured  and  comfortable  American 
homes,  to  the  New  Testament  ideal  of  service  and  the  down- 
town churches  will  neither  flee  nor  die,  but  with  adequate 
equipment  and  growing  powers  will  stand  the  guarantee  of  a 
saved  nation. 

The  ministerial  leader  must,  of  course,  give  his  people 
Christ's  vision  of  a  needy  world.  He  must  make  them  hear 
the  cry  from  Macedonia.  But  he  will  not  be  effective  in 
securing  more  than  a  mechanical  cash  response  to  those  far- 
away calls  unless  he  has  caused  them  vitally  to  interpret 
distant  need  by  that  which  is  nearest.  A  church  best  serves 
the  nation  and  the  world  when  it  is  most  faithful  to  the  work 
which  Hes  at  its  own  doors.  Remote  interests  get  their 
impulse  from  those  at  hand. 

The  man  in  the  ministry  who  will  lead  must  be  both  the 

128 


^ministerial  %tahtt^f^tp 


informing  spirit  of  his  churches  organization  and  the  guide 
of  its  developing  life.  For  the  church  is  an  organism.  If  a 
church  settles  down  to  a  fixed  system  of  reactions  to  its 
environment,  what  will  it  do  if  the  environment  changes? 
If  there  is  no  informing  spirit  breathing  into  it  the  wisdom 
and  power  of  adaptation,  surely  it  will  die  of  stupidity  and 
atrophy.  It  is  an  accepted  principle  of  science  that  the  lack 
of  the  capacity  of  adjustment  means  the  extinction  of  any 
species.  A  church  must  not  only  have  power  of  quick 
accommodation  to  meet  the  changing  conditions  in  the 
modern  city,  but  it  must  also  be  able  to  conceive  new  ideal 
conditions  and  have  the  resolution  to  make  those  ideal 
conditions  real. 

Educators  to-day  have  much  to  say  on  the  subject  of 
arrested  mental  development.  They  tell  us  that  all  normal 
consciousness  is  active  through  and  through,  and  that  where 
there  is  not  the  appropriate  action  upon  the  occasion  of  any 
condition  presented  to  the  mind,  the  signs  of  arrested  develop- 
ment have  appeared.  This  argues  that  every  impression 
should  have  its  appropriate  expression.  Now,  the  develop- 
ment of  a  church  is  certainly  arrested  the  very  moment  when 
it  gives  a  fragmentary  or  inadequate  response  to  the  impres- 
sions it  receives;  when  its  motor  is  not  equal  to  its  sensory; 
when,  with  the  ability  to  serve  and  the  needs  presented  and 
the  ways  open,  it  lacks  the  will. 

Moreover  it  is  the  expression  of  impression  which  does 
most  to  educate.  The  child  learns  most  by  what  he  does 
himself.  Truth  is  made  real  and  retained  by  the  laboratory 
method.  We  arrive  at  being  by  doing.  A  conviction  dies  out 
of  the  soul  and  removes  its  stamp  from  the  character  unless 

129 


0it€t}txmth  €l^eolo0ical  ^cminarp 

that  conviction  is  applied.  Our  ideals  clarify  and  trans- 
figure the  consciousness  as  we  practice  them.  And  these 
observations  are  pertinent  to  the  church.  Its  communion 
with  God,  its  knowledge  of  Christ,  its  reality  of  faith  must 
be  given  concrete  expression  or  the  church  will  become  ob- 
livious of  its  own  significance.  People  must  experience 
something  more  than  impression  and  know  their  principles 
in  other  forms  than  abstractions.  A  minister,  by  personal 
magnetism  and  brilliant  utterance,  may  be  able  to  call  to- 
gether an  aggregation  of  congenial  minds;  he  will  have  a 
congregation  and  he  may,  indeed,  be  a  leader  of  forces 
making  for  the  higher  life;  but  the  very  manner  in  which  his 
congregation  melts  away  when  he  is  gone  shows  that  for 
conserved  power  a  minister  must  make  more  than  impression. 
He  must  call  out  the  activities  of  his  people.  He  must  select, 
develop,  and  enlist  leaders,  and,  following  the  law  of  their 
spontaneous  interests,  so  group  his  parishioners  that  he  will 
have  a  symmetrical  body  with  every  needed  organ  answering 
in  function  to  all  the  demands  upon  his  church. 

We  cannot  overemphasize  the  importance  of  the  social 
life  of  the  church  —  social  life  organized  around  specific 
motives  of  service.  The  local  church  itself  is  a  social  group 
whose  organizing  and  sovereign  thought  is  the  extension  of 
the  kingdom  of  God.  It  is  held  together  by  life  forces.  It 
depends  for  its  very  existence  upon  the  actual  touch  of  life 
to  life,  upon  the  action  and  reaction  of  soul  touching  soul. 
No  other  power  can  preserve  the  unity  and  insure  the  growth 
of  the  church  except  the  vigorous  movements  of  its  own  life, 
quickened  and  informed  by  the  life  divine.  No  soul  is 
self-sufficient.     Comparatively  few  in  the  average  church 

130 


^ministerial  JleaDer^ljip 


can  be  held  and  given  something  more  than  static  energy 
by  the  sole  power  of  the  pulpit.  Few  are  so  free  from  the 
necessary  mediation  of  the  group  that  they  can  acquire  such 
spiritual  independence  and  personal  inspiration  through 
their  own  study  and  prayers  as  will  insure  their  self-initiation 
and  self-dedication.  This  is  not  a  weakness,  that  people 
must  be  supported  by  fellowship  and  common  interests.  It 
is  the  way  we  are  born.  Indeed,  at  the  outset  of  life  we 
acquire  personalness  through  our  relations  to  others  and  it  is 
by  our  association  with  others  that  our  personalness  is 
sustained  and  made  strong.  Hence  the  pastor,  if  he  will 
maintain  growing  life  in  his  church,  must  see  that,  so  far  as 
possible,  every  soul  under  his  care  receives  and  exerts  its 
own  special  and  personal  ministry.  Every  one  must  have 
his  religious  nature  kept  healthy  and  strong  by  activity 
through  association.  Moreover,  the  various  groups  must 
be  so  harmoniously  organized  together  that  every  part  will 
feel  the  greatness  and  dignity  of  the  whole  and  the  whole  be 
supported  and  strengthened  by  the  help  of  every  part.  Our 
religion  is  ethical  and  by  that  very  fact  social.  If  it  have 
inadequate  social  expression,  the  ethical  will  lapse;  and 
when  the  ethical  lapses,  religion  becomes  a  very  dry  root 
in  a  very  dry  ground. 

The  pastor  has  a  very  personal  responsibility  for  any  one 
until  that  one  has  found  his  place  in  the  life  of  the  church 
and  of  course  he  will  still  have  his  duty  to  that  one;  but  when 
the  individual  is  receiving  strength  and  imparting  strength 
through  the  great  interrelation  then  the  pastor  may  cease  to 
be  anxious.  Every  soul  in  the  church  must  have  an  im- 
mediate, nourishing,  developing  relation  to  the  general  life 

131 


j^cCormicfe  Ct^eological  ^eminarp 

of  the  church  mediated  through  special  group  intimacies 
and  activities.  From  its  environment  the  life  draws  its 
food.  God  is  the  ultimate  environment  of  the  Christian; 
but,  after  all,  God  is  known  principally  in  terms  of  persons. 

Perhaps  the  most  important  and  crucial  work  in  which 
the  minister  is  to  be  a  leader  is  that  of  child  development. 
We  will  never  change  the  mind  of  the  world  if  we  neglect 
the  children.  Evangelize  adults,  for  they  are  worth  saving; 
but,  from  the  point  of  view  of  the  enlargement  of  the  kingdom 
of  God  in  the  world,  by  all  means  the  church  must  get  hold 
of  the  children.  To  neglect  them,  especially  the  adolescents 
between  the  ages  of  thirteen  and  twenty,  is  church  suicide. 
It  may  be  said  soberly,  considering  the  present  state  of 
religious  thought  and  experience,  that  religious  education  is 
the  first  business  of  the  church  in  this  generation  and,  in  the 
interests  of  the  most  fruitful  evangehsm,  the  minister  should 
be,  first  of  all,  an  educator. 

Happily,  to-day  sound  pedagogical  principles  are  finding 
their  way  more  and  more  into  the  Sunday  School,  so  that  it 
is  becoming  a  school  in  the  strict  sense.  The  study  of  the 
psychology  of  childhood  and  youth  has  transformed  the 
educational  theories  within  the  last  thirty  years.  We  know 
more  of  the  course  of  progress  from  infancy  to  maturity 
through  the  different  epochs,  and  we  have  discovered  that 
each  epoch  has  its  own  physical,  mental,  and  spiritual 
characteristics  and  aptitudes.  Some  of  the  finest  Christian 
work  being  done  to-day  is  in  this  art  of  giving  the  child  the 
truth  which  the  Bible  reveals  in  the  form  which  the  child 
can  apprehend,  of  leading  the  child  through  such  religious 
practices  as  are  appropriate  to  his  stage  of  development, 

132 


jmini^terial  Heatieritfljip 


and  of  gradually  bringing  the  child  through  habits  formed 
to  conscious  principles,  so  that  the  whole  process  is  natural 
from  instinct  through  growing  intelligence  on  to  the  self- 
enthronement  of  the  largest  spiritual  ideas.  Now,  this  is 
both  religious  and  scientific.  While  the  minister  may  never 
superintend  a  Sunday  School  or  be  a  teacher  therein,  still 
the  religious  and  moral  education  of  the  children  is  surely  a 
field  in  which  he  ought  to  lead.  Therefore,  he  ought  to 
know  what  constitutes  good  teaching  and  how  to  train 
teachers  for  their  work.  He  ought  to  be  grounded  in  the 
principles  of  education  and  the  best  methods  conducive  of 
religious  and  moral  development.  He  ought  to  know  the 
imfolding  mental  processes  of  normal  childhood  and  youth; 
what  captures  their  attention,  and  the  lines  of  their  interests 
which  offer  least  resistance  to  the  ideas  to  be  inculcated. 
He  ought  to  know  what  is  abnormal  and  morbid  in  the  re- 
ligious experience  of  childhood  and  be  able  to  relate  the 
abnormal  to  its  cause.  He  ought  to  know,  above  all  things, 
that  children  are  the  quickest  to  detect  and  rebound  from 
unreality  and  sham  and  that,  therefore,  the  sooner  we  get 
away  from  every  conception  and  procedure  which  is  not 
vital,  valuable,  full  of  meaning  and  power,  will  we  win  them 
for  Christ  and  find  them  becoming  the  most  dynamic  ele- 
ments for  righteousness  in  the  real  life  of  the  world.  If  the 
minister  can  secure  such  teaching  in  whatever  educational 
associations  may  be  in  his  church  —  such  teaching  as  is 
ruled  by  ideals  of  Christian  character  and  sound  knowledge 
of  the  mental  processes  of  the  youth,  the  aim  of  which  is  that 
spirit  may  awaken  spirit — he  can  lead  his  young  people; 
and  he  can  also,  as  in  no  other  such  effective  way,  do  that 

133 


j^cCotmtcft  €l)eological  ^cminarp 

which  is  the  strategic  task  of  to-day,  bring  back  religion  as 
a  conscious  and  expressed  factor  in  the  American  home. 
Yes,  the  minister  of  to-day  is  an  educator.  He  must 
educate,  that  is,  by  the  help  of  the  Divine  Spirit,  draw  out  the 
people's  own  spiritual  capacities  and  guide  them  into  the 
service  of  God  and  man.  And  the  minister  must  remember 
that  his  function  is  not  limited  by  the  members  of  his  own 
church.  He  has  a  congregation  half  of  which  is  gathered 
from  the  community  and  the  world  at  large.  How  shall  he 
be  an  educator  in  this  miniature  world  which  presents 
possibly  all  the  elements  cosmopohtan?  Besides,  this 
miniature  world  is  itself  an  educator  of  the  still  wider  world. 

Thus 

''Our  echoes  roll  from  soul  to  soul 
And  grow  forever  and  forever," 

and  every  pastor  is,  after  all,  a  world  pastor. 

To  this  larger  world,  so  far  as  he  touches  it  in  ministerial 
function,  he  must  be  the  mediator  of  a  "vision  splendid" 
which,  alas,  is  sadly  lacking  in  this  generation.  Granted 
that  he  himself  is  thoroughly  grounded  in  apologetics, 
informed  in  the  various  philosophies  of  the  universe,  and 
quite  settled  in  his  own  theistic  and  Christian  faith,  it 
certainly  requires  only  an  honest  and  close  scrutiny  of  the 
people  to  detect  that,  despite  large  aggregations  of  Christians, 
multiplied  thousands  including  many  professed  Christians 
are  living  in  the  shadows.  Limitations  upon  ministerial 
leadership  are  imposed  by  this  narrowness  or  cloudiness  of 
the  religious  consciousness  of  many  people.  They  lack 
and  want  an  ultimate  explanation  of  life.  Inadequate  is 
their  knowledge  of  God  and  they  grope  to  find  their  own 

134 


;|^ini.3^tertal  Heatier^fttp 


souls.  They  are  so  confused,  bewildered,  and  abashed  by 
the  multiplicity,  variety,  and  diversity  of  current  ideas  and 
experiences  that  they  can  arrive  at  no  whole,  no  unity,  no 
life  plan.  This  age  with  its  specializations,  divisions  of 
labor,  narrowness  of  fields  in  which  so  many  are  compelled 
to  think  and  work,  has  closed  in  the  horizon  upon  many 
lives  with  a  result  that  there  are  seen  no  heavens  to  explain 
their  earth;  they  have  no  comprehensive  thought,  no  world 
idea,  no  ultimate  ethical  interpretation.  Manifestly,  if  the 
people  have  no  eyes  for  the  invisible,  no  sense  of  the  unseen 
God;  if  all  has  been  resolved  into  naturalism,  or  if  intellectual 
despair  has  resulted  in  the  indifference  of  agnosticism;  if  the 
religious  nature  has  been  dulled  or  atrophied  by  inactivity 
and  the  conscience,  bereft  of  any  authority  from  above, 
conforms  only  to  custom  or  expediency;  if  the  whole  vast 
realm  where  the  soul  ought  to  be  at  home  has  been  narrowed 
down  so  that  there  is  every  thought  for  the  things  of  the  world 
and  no  thought  for  the  things  beyond  mere  sense,  then, 
indeed,  the  minister  must  arouse  the  dead.  His  must  be 
"the  voice  of  one  crying  in  the  wilderness."  By  just  so 
much  as  the  conditions  of  living  make  life  a  wilderness,  by 
so  much  is  it  difficult  to  awaken  spiritual  echoes  in  human 
hearts. 

Yet,  be  it  acknowledged  that  no  soul  is  altogether  a 
wilderness;  for  the  same  desire  for  unity  which  characterizes 
the  scientist  and  the  philosopher  is  found,  though  perhaps 
unconsciously  resident,  in  the  mind  of  the  common  man. 
And  it  is  the  business  of  the  minister  to  help  him  find  how 
his  life  is  related  to  the  vast  whole,  else  the  minister  has  failed 
at  the  vital  point  of  his  mission.     This  common  man  must 

135 


jHt€ormicft  €l^eoIogtcal  J>emxnarp 

find  his  place  in  the  unity  of  the  thought  and  loving  purpose 
of  God,  a  unity  which  includes  him  and  all  his  fellows,  and 
which  will  comfort  him,  inspire  him,  and  lift  him  into  self- 
respect  and  respect  for  persons  as  such,  into  a  life  of  worship 
and  ethical  enthusiasm. 

The  people  must  be  brought  to  a  vivid  sense  that  the 
only  true  interpretation  of  the  world  is  in  terms  of  spiritual 
personality,  that  from  personality  come  all  things  and  unto 
personahty  return,  that  the  highest  good  is  not  in  the  external, 
material,  and  sensuous  but  in  morality,  truth,  and  beauty  of 
life,  that  they  are  off  the  line  of  their  own  true  possibilities 
and  away  from  their  course  as  immortal  spirits  capable  of 
endless  development  when  they  do  not  relate  as  subsidiary 
and  contributory  to  successful  personality  all  employments 
and  concerns.  They  must  know  also  that  personality 
realizes  itself  only  in  worthy  social  relations,  that  it  lives, 
moves,  and  has  its  being  in  society  for  the  very  reason  that  it 
lives  in  God.  The  call  is  for  a  rediscovery  of  the  personal 
soul  and  the  personal  God.  It  is  this  new  "  Great  Awaken- 
ing" of  the  people  to  the  fundamental  reality  of  the  thing 
worth  while,  the  great  spiritual  ultimate,  the  fact  of  God,  His 
thought  and  purpose,  the  vast  glorious  simplicity  which 
interprets  and  dignifies  our  complexities,  putting  meaning 
and  character  into  the  dull  and  monotonous  —  it  is  this 
quickening  of  vision  power  which  will  prosper  the  church 
and  guarantee  ministerial  leadership  in  the  future.  Minis- 
terial leaders  must  here  and  now  set  themselves  to  throwing 
open  doors,  lifting  veils,  banishing  delusions,  brushing  away 
clouds,  correcting  the  deadly  notions  that  life  is  explained  in 
the  meagre  terms  of  market,  office,  and  street,  or  that  skill, 

136 


0ixm^tmal  3leaDer^I)ip 


efficiency,  and  success  in  the  arena  of  the  world  are  all. 
The  people  must  see  that  these  are  only  functions  of  the 
larger  unit,  the  greater  organism,  that  the  final  meanings  and 
ends  are  spiritual  and  that  nothing  has  found  its  place  and 
bearing  until  it  is  related  with  consecration  to  religious  and 
ethical  ends.     This  is  the  very  essence  of  the  "simple  life.'^ 

Of  course,  I  do  not  mean  that  ministers  should  turn 
their  attention  exclusively  to  apologetic  discussion,  much  less 
to  speculative  disquisitions  on  the  meanings  of  life,  philo- 
sophic performances  above  the  heads  of  the  people;  but  I 
do  mean  that  the  call  to-day  from  multitudes  is  to  see  life 
clearly,  wholly,  and  resolutely.  They  want  the  atmosphere 
cleared;  and,  pray,  to  whom  shall  they  look  but  to  the 
ministers  of  the  gospel  of  Christ  ?  The  minister  is  to  mediate. 
He  is  to  stand  between  irrational  and  rational  living,  between 
chaotic  and  orderly  life,  between  man  as  groping,  lost,  and 
weary,  and  man  as  bound  for  a  goal,  exultant  in  the  con- 
sciousness of  sonship  to  God.  The  gospel  of  Christ,  yea, 
Christ  himself,  is  the  universal  scheme  opened,  the  character 
of  God  set  forth,  man's  place  in  the  universe  disclosed,  his 
eternal  dignity  and  worth,  his  privileges  and  obligations,  his 
true  ideals  and  powers  to  realize  them  unveiled,  and  this 
gospel  has  its  power  conditioned  by  the  Master  in  ministerial 
leadership. 

Now  these  thoughts,  while  heralded  from  the  pulpit  by 
the  open  eyed  man  of  God,  have  another  heralding  which 
after  all  is  the  great  interpretation  and  persuasion.  It  is  the 
life  of  the  church  that  preaches.  It  is  by  what  the  minister, 
with  his  own  soul  open  to  God  for  heavenly  wisdom  and 
power,  with  all  his  knowledge,  skill,  and  love,  with  all  his 

137 


;|^c€otmxcft  Cftcological  ^eminarp 

influence  in  home,  school,  shop,  club  and  wherever  his  vital 
soul  touches  another  soul  —  it  is  what  the  minister  is  and 
does  and  what  he  causes  his  church  to  be  and  do  that  makes 
his  largest  contribution  to  the  spiritual  view  of  life  in  our 
day. 

Notice  some  encouragements.  The  minister  of  to-day 
is  given  such  an  opportunity  for  leadership  both  in  his 
immediate  parish  and  the  world  parish,  which  he  ultimately 
serves,  as  perhaps  has  been  unequaled  in  history.  Honest, 
thorough- going,  moral  enthusiasm  will  at  last  crown  the  Christ. 
All  that  is  required  is  the  educative  interpreter  —  some  one 
to  show  where  is  the  home  of  ethical  purpose  and  power. 
The  open  eyed  student  of  history  knows  that  never  were 
moral  demands  more  strenuous  than  to-day.  Often  de- 
feated and  disappointed,  the  people  again  and  again  insist 
upon  cleaner  politics,  more  honest  business,  and  higher 
standards  in  social  life.  True,  this  revival  in  morals  has 
been  to  some  extent  the  result  of  reaction,  outrage  at  gross 
and  conspicuous  wrongs,  the  sense  of  injustice  and  the 
determination  not  to  be  robbed.  True,  also,  a  refined 
selfishness  may  be  detected  in  the  great  efforts  toward 
popular  decency,  for  they  are  often  inspired  not  because 
right  is  right,  nor  because  the  moral  order  has  been  outraged 
but  rather  because  of  fear  for  social  safety,  alarm  at  tendencies 
dangerous  to  the  prosperity  and  success  of  democracy.  Still, 
here  is  this  ethical  vision  growing  clearer  and  purer  in  motive 
every  day.  Shall  a  scientific  age,  in  a  field  of  its  own  en- 
thusiastic study  and  endeavor,  be  allowed  to  fail  of  its  most 
stupendous  facts?  Shall  the  morals  of  our  people  find  no 
deeper  roots  than  the  prudentials,  expediencies,  and  safeties  ? 

138 


I^ini^tcrial  Jleatier^ljip 


It  depends  upon  the  religious  leadership  of  the  ministers.  It 
belongs  to  the  minister  to  relate  the  coveted  morals  to  their 
religious  sources.  By  all  that  he  is,  says,  and  does  as  an 
educator  of  the  people  he  must  make  the  facts  of  the  spiritual 
world  real.  A  certain  vagueness  as  to  the  nature  and 
importance  of  religion  must  be  dispelled,  so  that  it  becomes 
more  concrete,  real  and  vital,  answering  a  conscious  need  as 
light  answers  the  eye  and  as  the  implicit  reason  in  the  external 
world  answers  the  human  mind.  Here  is  where  the  minister 
is  most  likely  to  break  down,  lose  his  authority  and  power, 
in  his  inability  to  make  the  great  connection.  To  be  able 
to  make  clear  that  God,  the  universe,  and  all  human  life 
have  their  meanings  set  forth  in  Christ,  and  that  true  religion 
is  the  binding  of  the  soul  to  Him,  that  only  in  Him  is  a  soul 
true  to  the  universal  constitution,  that  Christ's  is  the  mind 
of  God,  that  we  must  find  out  His  mind  and  fellowship  with 
Him  to  have  either  the  pattern  or  power  of  true  morality — 
to  make  this  clear  is  the  great  achievement  for  which  there 
comes  from  every  quarter  a  pathetic ,  voiceless  cry. 

"They  talk  of  morals,  O  thou  bleeding  Lamb! 
The  true  morality  is  love  of  Thee.  " 

Yes,  in  the  new  moral  emphasis  of  to-day  the  minister 
has  a  great  opportunity,  for  since  any  special  right  or  duty 
radiates  directly  from  the  mind  of  God  revealed  in  Christ, 
it  therefore  blazes  a  path  for  intelligent  leadership  to  bring 
the  soul  dedicated  to  duty  straight  to  its  home  in  God. 
Verily,  the  Spirit  divine  is  not  quiescent  among  our  people, 
for  everywhere,  through  ethical  quickening  and  by  various 
indirections,   he  is    preparing    the  way  for  such   popular 

139 


jmcCotmicfe  Cljeolofficai  ^eminarp 

rediscovery  of  the  underlying  religious  foundations  of  life 
as  will  bring  on  such  a  revival  of  faith  as  the  world  has  not 
seen. 

Indeed,  by  various  indirections  God's  spirit  is  working 
out  His  purposes  among  our  people.  He  whose  parish  in- 
cludes or  whose  life  is  in  close  touch  with  the  higher  schools 
of  learning,  appreciates,  perhaps  more  than  others,  the  signs 
of  hope.  The  great  spiritual  realities  will  soon  come  to 
their  own.  Much  progress  in  sound  and  thorough  thinking 
must  yet  be  made.  Ministers  must  have  the  vision.  Our 
thought  must  be  thought  through  again  in  the  Hght  of  current 
moods,  attitudes  and  needs.  Let  more  books  which,  with 
absolute  honesty  and  candor,  deal  with  the  phenomena  of 
experience  be  written  and  read.  For  honest  science  may  be 
trusted  not  wilfully  to  overlook ,  and  faithful  philosophy  not 
finally  to  ignore,  the  facts.  Hence  the  halt  in  a  despairing 
naturalism  is  but  for  the  moment.  Its  accompanying  crude 
secularism  must  pass.  The  day  will  come  when  schools  of 
scientific  research  and  technological  training  will,  by  their 
very  insistence  upon  thoroughness,  lead  into  the  Holy  of 
HoHes.  The  day  will  come  when  the  university  will  mother 
her  boys  into  the  school  of  theology.  So  one  is  this  universe, 
such  a  unity  indeed  it  is,  that  at  last  the  human  mind,  true 
to  itself,  will  not  stop  as  it  follows  law  and  energy  and  the 
upward  leadings  of  the  soul  itself  until  it  comes  to  the 
thought,  purpose  and  love  of  the  personal  God  who  "  upholds, 
sustains  and  orders  all."  Thus  may  we  hope  for  great 
things  as  in  full  recognition  of  God's  own  persuasions  we 
trust  human  rationality  and  the  native  belongings  of  our 
human  kind. 

140 


;^imi^terial  Iteatietr^ljip 


Some  have  said  that  the  church  is  decadent.  It  is  not. 
It  is  only  struggling  into  new  adjustments.  If  the  church's 
vitality  seems  below  normal  it  is  only  because,  as  a  mother, 
so  many  lusty  children  of  helpful  ministry  have  been  born 
to  her  that  they  have  taken  her  strength.  Standing  among 
her  own  children's  multifarious  activities  she  is  a  little  be- 
wildered. It  seems  quite  evident  that  in  many  quarters 
members  of  the  church  have  no  adequate  consciousness  of 
the  special  meaning  of  the  church,  what  the  church  stands 
for,  the  solid  convictions  upon  which  it  rests,  the  principles 
which  give  it  unity  and  the  life  which  is  its  power.  Hence 
we  find  many  churches  too  far  below  the  ideal.  I  omit  the 
many  specific  indictments  which  might  be  brought  to  the 
shame  of  the  modern  church.  They  are  blazed  before  the 
public  in  every  paper  and  magazine.  Many  are  very  unjust, 
born  of  misunderstandings,  misconceptions,  and  the  father 
of  lies.  Nevertheless,  the  minister,  if  he  will  lead,  must  cause 
the  vital  and  eternal  meanings  of  the  church  to  walk  up  full 
faced  in  every  aisle  and  into  every  pew  until  there  is  a  full 
realization  of  the  significance  of  church  membership.  If 
the  minister  will  lead  through  his  church  then  the  church 
must  reflect  his  own  consciousness  of  the  spiritual  life. 
He  must  to  a  large  degree  mold  the  mind  of  his  church,  be 
the  utterance  of  that  mind,  and  the  church,  in  turn,  must 
become  the  continuance  and  enlargement  of  his  prophetic 
work.  He  is  to  deepen  and  enrich  the  life  of  his  church; 
and  the  clearer  and  profounder  and  more  unanimous  in 
control  become  the  sovereign  conviction  and  motive  of  his 
church,  the  richer  and  more  luminous  become  his  own  soul 
and  its  expression.     Thus  deep  answers  unto  deep.     The 

141 


0it€otmxtk  Clieologtcal  ^feeminarp 

correspondence  of  consecrated  parishioners  to  consecrated 
minister  gives  ministerial  leadership  through  the  church. 

This  great  end  is  attained  by  constructive  work.  It 
must  be  vital  through  and  through.  Not  by  machinery  or 
ingenius  clap-trap  methods,  not  by  the  seductiveness  of  any 
species  of  sensationalism,  not  by  fussy,  impulsive,  busy-body 
procedures,  not  by  striking  at  every  new  invention  of  criti- 
sism,  or  hurling  anathemas  at  every  peripatetic  philosopher 
disseminating  new  views  which  were  born  of  conceit,  ignor- 
ance, and  oriental  dreaming  —  by  none  of  these  devices 
will  he  lead. 

He  will  be  effective  if  he  shows  no  variableness  or  shadow 
of  turning  from  a  loving,  sympathetic,  intelligent  course  of 
constructive,  educational,  self-sacrificing  ministry;  con- 
tributing always  in  all  his  work  and  relations  to  his  people's 
sense  of  God,  to  a  life  not  merely  having  religion  (as  though 
in  some  compartment  in  the  soul)  but  religious  through  and 
through,  to  dedication  to  the  ideal  because  it  is  God-like, 
to  morals  because  expressive  of  God's  will,  to  fellowship  with 
Christ  because  through  Him  we  have  our  knowledge  of  the 
character  of  God,  the  revelation  of  God's  eternal  heartache 
of  love  for  our  humanity,  and  our  salvation  unto  our  fullest 
possibilities. 

Thus  the  minister  will  have  his  Christ-imposed  privilege 
of  leadership,  and  the  kingdom  will  continue  to  come  in 
power.  His  leadership  will  be  through  His  church.  The 
realities  for  which  the  church  stands  will  be  so  manifest,  so 
human,  so  divine,  that  they  will  be  more  widely  noticed,  then 
considered,  then  embraced.  Charges  of  insincerity  will  fail 
because  the  sacred  will  interlock  with  the  secular  and  be  one. 

142 


;iWini^terial  3lcaD0r^J)ip 


Industrial,  political,  social  honor  will  stand  in  enduring 
reason.  Morality  will  have  both  its  enforcement  and 
fascination.  Government  will  find  its  divine  right.  But  it 
all  depends  upon  the  minister's  ability,  through  fellowship 
with  Christ,  to  make  God  real.  It  may  require  long  time, 
but  since  God  is  God  and  man  is  His  child,  the  happy  con- 
summation will  be  reached. 


143 


iHtnt0te]ctal  Leatierisi^tp  in  jHiissiionjs 

BY  REV.  CHARLES  L.  THOMPSON,  D.  D.,  LL.  D. 

AMONG  the  great  pictures  in  the  Metropolitan  Museum, 
the  one  that  moves  me  most  is  that  of  Napoleon's  Re- 
treat from  Moscow.  On  his  white  horse  he  is  riding  before 
his  generals.  They  follow  in  a  loyal  line.  It  is  called  a 
"  retreat ";  but  leadership  cannot  be  obscured  by  the  fortunes 
of  war. 

Look  at  him:  the  pose  of  perfect  command  and  the 
eagle  eye  that  looks  into  the  future  and  sees  victories.  He 
is  still  the  great  captain !  The  most  unobscurable  thing  is 
leadership  in  any  realm. 

Carlyle  says,  "  Universal  history  is  at  bottom  the  history 
of  great  men,  the  leaders  in  human  affairs."  Before  these 
we  all  bow  down.  It  does  not  matter  essentially  what  is 
the  realm  in  which  this  leadership  appears.  The  man  who 
can  take  a  city,  or  write  an  epic,  or  head  a  reform,  or  quell 
a  mob,  in  any  sphere,  high  or  low,  the  leader,  him  will  we 
acclaim. 

Still,  nothing  moves  the  world  like  leadership  in  a  cause 
worthy  of  the  best  powers.  And  at  last  there  is  only  one 
such  cause.  To  evoke,  to  marshal,  and  to  lead  out  the 
higher  life  of  man,  this  alone  is  supreme  leadership. 

If  a  man  can  summon  into  being  the  spiritual  life  of  men 
and  convert  it  into  spiritual  force,  and  marshal  that  force 
for  the  best  ends  of  living,  for  making  people  and  society 
and  nations  better  and  nobler,  this  only  is  the  victory  worthy 

145 


jmcCormicft  Cftcological  ^eminarp 

of  supremest  striving.  The  man  who  can  do  this  on  a  large 
or  a  small  scale,  that  man  is  a  leader;  on  a  large  scale,  lifting 
humanity  to  higher  levels  by  the  fulcrum  of  some  great  re- 
form (we  will  name  him  Martin  Luther  or  William  Wilber- 
force) ;  on  a  small  scale,  in  a  shut-in  community,  some  hum- 
ble minister  who  will  point  to  heaven  and  lead  the  way,  he 
too  in  the  highest  view  is  a  leader  of  men. 

Because  the  energies  of  the  ministry  have  the  sweep  of 
time  and  eternity  it  affords  the  finest  chance  for  leadership. 
It  is  the  greatest  work  in  the  world  whether  you  estimate 
by  its  accomplishments  or  its  ideals.  Its  accomplishments: 
It  has  renewed  the  face  of  the  earth.  It  has  led  most  of  the 
great  reforms  and  has  been  the  indirect  agent  in  the  spread 
of  civilization.  What  it  does  in  the  spiritual  realm  we  cannot 
measure.  Eternity  curtains  that  secret.  But  what  it  has 
done  to  brighten  this  dark  world  and  lift  it  to  better  levels, 
he  who  runs  may  read. 

At  the  close  of  a  service  two  years  ago  in  which  President 
Roosevelt  was  a  participant,  he  came  forward  in  his  enthu- 
siastic way  and  said,  "  We  can  get  on  with  protective  tariff 
or  without  it,  with  this  theory  of  internal  revenue  or  that, 
but  we  cannot  get  on  without  the  things  for  which  you  have 
been  pleading. " 

And  it  is  true.  The  message  of  the  humblest  minister 
of  Christ  is  the  one  on  which  the  fate  of  ages  hangs.  And 
its  ideals :  there  is  only  one  persistent  ideal  for  the  children 
of  men.     It  is  the  ideal  of  the  higher  life. 

The  cathedral  in  Europe  that  impresses  me  most  is  that 
at  Cologne.  It  is  the  one  that  through  the  toils  of  six  cen- 
turies was  finished  according  to  the  architect's  sublime  con- 

146 


3leabet^l)ip  in  ^Wim^ 


ception.  Generation  after  generation  took  up  the  work  and 
carried  it  forward  under  the  inspiration  of  the  one  ideal. 

So,  the  kingdom  of  God  on  earth.  We  have  seen  the 
pattern  on  the  mount.  Age  after  age  takes  up  the  theme. 
From  leader  to  leader  the  thought  passes  on,  and  every  hand 
that  has  lifted  one  stone  and  set  it  toward  the  pinnacle  is  a 
leader  in  a  cause  that,  like  a  great  cathedral,  overshadows 
every  other. 

I  am  a  minister  saying  these  things  about  the  leadership 
of  the  ministry.  But  my  words  are  not  without  confirmation 
from  other  realms  of  thought.  Our  philosophy  confesses 
that  only  the  spiritual  interests  of  men  are  worth  the  best 
efforts.  Our  science,  that  once  was  supposed  to  have  no 
vision  beyond  its  own  horizon,  is  now  pressing  inquiring 
eyes  against  the  great  curtain,  and  even  fancies  it  can  see 
shadowy  movements  behind  it.  Our  psychology  is  no  longer 
content  to  be  time-bounded.  William  James  moves  tremu- 
lous hands  toward  the  shadows  and  thinks  he  has  felt  the 
clasp  of  another  hand. 

The  most  utilitarian  man  of  affairs  sometimes  hears  that 

"  .  .  .  .  Solemn  murmur  in  the  soul 
That  tells  of  worlds  to  be, 
As  travelers  hear  the  billows  roll 
Before  they  reach  the  sea." 

By  all  these  converging  testimonies  from  every  realm  of 
thought  and  action,  it  is  true  beyond  all  doubting  that  the 
ministry  has  the  message  that  gives  chance  for  the  highest 
leadership  on  earth.  I  do  not  except  other  great  spheres 
of  leadership,  because  they  all  come  to  their  best  as  they 
touch  this  one. 

147 


;^cCormitft  Cfjeolosicai  ^eminarp 

Thus  education :  One  of  our  great  educators  has  recently 
said  it  finds  its  completion  only  in  the  spiritual  interests  of 
man. 

Thus  the  forum :  One  of  the  high  officials  of  our  govern- 
ment said  to  me  the  other  day,  "We talk  of  morahty  in 
national  affairs;  there  is  no  morality  without  religion." 

Thus  literature:  Every  great  epic,  every  great  drama, 
is  built  on  the  religious  base. 

Not  only  does  work  for  these  highest  interests  of  man 
give  a  chance  for  leadership,  it  demands  it.  Christianity 
is  not  a  theory.  It  is  essentially  life,  and  life  means  action. 
And  for  action  the  one  requisite  is  leadership.  Heaven  saw 
it  when  God  sent  forth  His  Son.  It  had  been  easy  to  en- 
grave high  doctrines  on  stone  and  hand  them  down,  great 
feelings  to  throb  in  human  souls,  but  it  had  been  all  in  vain. 
If  men  must  march  to  moral  victory  on  fields  of  action  there 
must  be  a  human  leader  to  incarnate  doctrine  and  show  how 
emotions  can  work. 

So  Jesus  came.  A  great  thinker?  Yes.  A  great 
teacher?  Yes.  A  great  lover  of  mankind?  Yes.  But 
I  more  than  sum  it  all  up  when  I  say,  He  is  the  Captain  of 
our  salvation.  How  men  follow  him.  *'  A  little  deeper  and 
you  will  find  the  Emperor, "  said  the  dying  soldier  of  Napo- 
leon's guard  when  the  surgeon  was  probing  above  his  heart 
for  the  bullet.  So  men  everywhere  enshrine  our  Leader  and 
follow  Him  to  death.  If  we  were  more  like  Him  how  easy 
would  be  our  leadership  of  men ! 

In  a  sense  ministerial  leadership  becomes  more  difficult. 
The  rising  levels  of  humanity  make  it  so. 


148 


1teatiet.30?|)ip  in  ^Wion^ 


Kipling  in  that  great  poem,  "McAndrew's  Hymn," 
sings  the  power  of  steam  thus: 

"  We're  creepin'  on  wi'  each  new  rig,  less  weight  and  larger  power. 
There'll  be  the  loco-boiler  next  and  thirty  knots  an  hour; 
Thirty  and  more,  —  what  I  hae  seen  since  ocean  steam  began 
Leaves  me  no  doot  for  the  machine,  —  but  what  aboot  the  man?'* 

That  is  the  final  question  of  our  civilization,  that  mighty 
and  complicated  engine. 

Indeed,  every  high  calling  these  days  calls  for  large  men, 
men  not  only  with  capacity  for  thought  and  feeling,  but  men 
whose  thought  and  feeling  have  been  trained  to  service.  It 
is  a  truism  to  say,  we  are  living  in  a  tense  key,  have  hold  of 
live  wires.  In  state  and  church,  only  men  who  have  nerve 
enough  to  hold  steady  to  their  tasks  amid  high  excitements 
and  fierce  distractions  will  keep  their  place. 

I  am  told  when  an  engineer  fails  on  a  few  successive  runs 
to  bring  the  Twentieth  Century  Limited  in  on  time,  he  is 
taken  off  and  put  on  a  slower  train,  the  company  judging 
that  his  nerves  are  no  longer  firm  enough  to  keep  the  throttle 
wide  open  and  bear  the  strain.  I  said  this  to  a  friend  re- 
cently who  had  become  somewhat  discouraged,  who  replied, 
"That  is  my  case.  I  cannot  bring  my  'limited'  in  on  time. 
I  ought  to  be  retired." 

This,  especially  for  leaders  in  the  upper  realms  of  life 
and  action,  this  is  the  day  of  a  great  chance  and  a  great 
obligation.  The  road  is  smoothed  to  many  a  fine  goal. 
The  signals  are  set  for  a  clear  track.  But,  ''What  aboot  the 
man?"  "The  occasion  should  evoke  the  man,"  do  you 
say  ?     Somewhat,  yes.     Did  the  Civil  War  bring  us  Lincoln  ? 


149 


j^cCotmicb  Cfjeological  ^eminarp 

But  Lincoln  did  not  spring  out  of  the  earth.  All  the  way 
from  the  Kentucky  cabin  Lincoln  was  marching  to  his  final 
chance. 

A  great  occasion  has  come  for  ministerial  leadership. 
I  note  the  signs  of  it  in  the  world's  unrest.  Materialism, 
the  darling  of  many  thinkers  of  a  generation  ago,  is  flung 
to  the  rubbish  pile.  It  fails  at  the  point  where  the  soul's 
challenge  comes  in. 

Intellectuality  in  any  form  has  been  found  wanting. 
And  men  are  not  only  calling  for  something  that  will  take 
hold  on  their  souls,  grip  and  hold  them  to  their  dreams,  to  the 
prophecies  of  their  better  selves,  they  are  demanding  an 
incarnation. 

These  things  must  appear  as  Christ  showed  them,  in 
flesh  and  blood,  in  a  voice  that  can  thrill,  in  tears  that  can 
fall,  in  a  real  human  march.  There  is  an  awakening  among 
nations.  Dry  bones  are  stirring  and  bone  is  coming  to  his 
bone.  All  the  valleys  of  human  life  wait  for  a  captain. 
When  he  speaks  the  march  will  begin. 

They  are  building  no  new  heathen  temples.  The  heathen 
in  the  gateways  of  crumbling  temples  are  waiting  for  a  new 
voice.  Not  of  commerce,  many  of  them  have  plenty  of  that. 
Not  of  government,  they  are  fairly  satisfied  with  their  own. 
There  is  only  one  explanation  of  the  unrest  of  nations.  It 
is  veiled  under  many  names.  At  bottom  it  is  the  dawning 
consciousness  of  an  old  life  that  must  be  throttled  and  a  new 
life  that  is  possible. 

I  am  expected  to  say  something  about  leadership  in 
missions.  Broadly  speaking  there  is  no  other  ministerial 
leadership.     Missions  is  the  only  calling   of  the  ministry. 

150 


3leatier^l)ip  in  :^i^^ion^ 


But  in  the  broadening  of  spheres  of  Christian  work  the  word 
"missions"  has  a  specific  meaning.  And  it  is  specially 
suggestive  of  leadership.  A  missionary  is  one  who  is  sent. 
It  presumes  a  field  of  action.  It  suggests  conquest.  In 
missionary  work  leadership  rises  to  its  highest  value,  has  its 
grandest  chance. 

If  a  young  man  has  an  ambition  for  scholarship,  let 
him  stay  under  the  shadow  of  the  university.  If  he  longs 
for  leisure  for  self-culture  that  may  appear  in  productive 
literature,  let  him  be  a  country  parson;  but  if  he  has  a  calling 
to  be  a  leader  of  men,  let  him  hear  and  heed  the  Mace- 
donian cry.     And  for  two  chief  reasons. 

I.  Missionary  work  appeals  to  and  develops  the  capacity 
for  leadership.  It  is  mainly  in  the  realm  of  action.  It 
is  a  summons  to  lead  individuals,  communities,  nations,  out 
of  their  present  life  into  another,  off  their  present  level  to 
another.     It  is  a  call  to  renunciation  and  surrender. 

If  the  mission  be  to  a  pagan  people  who  are  worshiping 
stocks  and  stones,  it  is  an  assertion  of  the  claims  of  the  in- 
visible God  and  a  call  to  desert  the  old  ways  and  follow  the 
leader  in  paths  of  righteousness  and  peace.  It  calls  for 
decision  and  obedience. 

It  has  in  its  urgency  and  its  imperatives  a  military  tone. 
When  Pizarro's  soldiers,  who  were  being  led  to  the  conquest 
of  Peru,  were  on  the  point  of  revolt  on  account  of  the  hard- 
ships before  them,  the  great  captain  with  a  sword  drew  a 
line  in  the  sand  on  the  shore  and  said,  "On  this  side  is 
ease  and  pleasure  and  home  and  —  disgrace;  on  the  other 
is  toil  and  danger  and  —  glory. "  Then  stepping  across  the 
line  he  cried,  "I  choose  the  latter;  let  who  is  worthy  follow 

151 


Pic€ot\mtk  €l)eological  ^eminarp 

me."  And  the  hesitating  line  swung  forward  and  began 
the  march  for  glory. 

To  some  such  decision  the  missionary  leader  has  a  chance 
to  call  men,  whose  hesitation  is  often  gloriously  ended  by 
leadership.  Fields  like  Korea  have  in  recent  days  shown 
what  a  spirit  of  advance  will  do,  how  magnetic  and  controlling 
it  becomes. 

This  is  only  saying  that  in  a  peculiar  measure  the  best 
missionary  work  is  evangelistic.  How  many  useful  min- 
isters there  are  in  cultured  home  communities  who  think 
their  positions  give  them  little  chance  for  a  forward  march. 
They  indoctrinate  intelligent  audiences;  they  shepherd 
peaceful  and  docile  flocks;  but  Christian  mihtarism  is  not 
within  sight.  They  never  have  a  day  of  decision,  for  the 
flocks  are  all  sheep;  there  are  no  goats  to  appeal  to.  They 
never  organize  a  campaign  for  aggressive  service,  for  there 
is  not  an  enemy  in  sight.  So  they  mark  time,  pleasantly, 
beautifully,  but  not  gloriously. 

How  perfectly  the  Seventh  and  the  Seventy-first  New  York 
regiments  marched  down  Fifth  Avenue  at  the  Hudson- 
Fulton  parade.  There  was  stirring  music  too.  It  really 
looked  as  if  there  might  be  a  fight  somewhere.  But  at  the 
Washington  Arch  they  broke  ranks  and  went  home.  Noth- 
ing had  happened. 

There  is  a  good  deal  of  church  campaigning  like  that 
parade.  Columns  that  keep  step,  a  proper  ecclesiastic 
uniform,  and  music  by  a  highly  paid  quartette.  But  nothing 
special  happens. 

But  this  is  not  on  the  mission  field.  I  was  shown  a 
picture  the  other  day  of  the  last  religious  encampment  of 


3leatier^l)ip  in  J^i^^ion^ 


the  Christian  Sioux,  two  thousand  strong.  They  had  come 
thirty,  forty,  fifty  miles  to  be  at  the  annual  review,  to  get  the 
leader's  fresh  note,  and  then  to  go  back,  not  to  inaction  but 
to  daily  service  in  often  hard  conditions,  and  for  missionary 
work  which  for  liberahty  is  not  matched  on  Fifth  or  Mich- 
igan Avenue. 

I  think  as  I  read  apostoHc  history  that  the  genius  of  the 
ministry  is  leadership.  Paul  was  a  great  theologian  before 
he  was  a  Christian.  His  conversion  made  him  a  leader. 
Thenceforth,  even  to  Nero's  block,  his  call  was  "Follow 
me  as  I  follow  Christ."  With  that  call  from  Antioch  to 
Rome  he  swung  men  into  lines  of  service.  If  the  young  men 
of  to-day  knew  their  opportunity  they  would  see  that  mission- 
ary service  will  put  them  closest  to  the  footsteps  of  Paul,  and 
will  develop,  better  than  any  other  work,  the  capacity  for 
Christian  leadership.  You  cannot  put  a  man  on  a  battle 
field  without  quickening  any  battle-pulse  there  is  in  his 
blood.  And  the  mission  field  to-day  is  not  only  the  picket 
line,  it  is  the  critical  battle  field  of  the  whole  Christian 
campaign. 

I  do  not  think  the  great  stake  is  in  our  great  capitals,  or 
our  well-ordered  communities.  You  would  have  thought 
during  the  Civil  War  that  Richmond  was  the  place  for  the 
decisive  battle.  That  is  where  the  capitol  was.  But  no,  the 
great  battle  was  in  the  wilderness. 

I  do  not  minimize  the  importance  of  the  great  centers 
of  people  and  of  commerce,  nor  the  great  value  of  living  for 
Christ  in  those  centers.  I  am  thinking  now  of  many  dis- 
tinguished men  who  have  been  leaders  in  metropolitan 
pulpits. 

153 


l^cCormicft  Cfjeological  ^eminarp 

But  I  know  one  little  captain  who  in  the  far  reach  of  his 
life  has  outstripped  them  all.  When  Sheldon  Jackson,  with 
the  vision  of  a  prophet  and  the  heart  of  an  apostle,  blazed 
a  path  for  Christian  conquest  from  the  Mississippi  to  the 
Pacific,  and  from  Puget  Sound  to  Alaska,  he  not  only  dis- 
played capacity  for  leadership  not  surpassed  in  recent  days, 
but  headed  such  an  army  of  missionary  advance  as  has  not 
been  marshaled  smce  apostolic  times. 

The  best  way  for  a  young  man  to  find  out  whether  he 
has  in  him  any  capacity  for  leadership  is  to  go  into  mission 
work.  It  may  never  dawn  on  him  in  the  church  on  the 
avenue,  the  church  whose  momentum  carries  him  along. 
He  may  even  fancy  as  he  rides  on  that  current  that  he  is 
inspiring  and  directing  it.  He  may  live  and  die  without  know- 
ing that  he  is  the  man  of  circumstances. 

But  let  him  go  where  there  are  no  religious  circumstances 
save  as  he  originates  them,  where  he  must  make  the  current 
if  there  is  to  be  one,  and  he  will  discover  the  measure  of 
himself. 

A  few  years  ago  I  called  one  of  our  missionaries  from 
Puget  Sound  to  the  East  to  present  the  missionary  appeal 
to  churches.  After  he  had  been  speaking  for  some  time  I 
asked  him  one  day  how  he  was  getting  on.  With  a  face 
that  was  childlike  and  bland  he  replied,  "I  don't  know." 

I  asked,  "Why  don't  you  know?  What  I  am  trying  to 
find  out  is  whether  the  audiences  you  address  are  interested 
in  your  appeal." 

Again  came  the  same  reply,  "I  don't  know,"  and  after 
a  moment's  meditation  he  added,  "The  people  down  east 
are  so  civilized  they  just  sit  still;  out  west  if  they  do  not  like 

154 


%tahtt^U9  in  i^i^^ion^ 


it  they  get  up  and  go  home.  There  it  is  easy  to  find  out 
whether  they  like  it  or  not. " 

What  a  post-graduate  course  a  genuine  mission  field 
affords.  How  soon  a  man  will  find  himself,  who,  in  some 
privilege-sheltered  nook  of  established  ordinances  might 
have  lived  all  his  days  in  a  fool's  paradise. 

If,  instead  of  waiting  for  a  call,  our  young  men  would 
issue  a  call,  whether  on  the  Columbia,  or  the  Amazon,  or 
the  Hoang-Ho,  issue  a  call  so  trumpet  tongued  that  men  must 
hear,  how  the  theological  gewgaws  would  fall  away  and 
the  firstlies  and  secondlies  and  finallies  would  fly  out  of  the 
window,  and  only  the  man  —  the  man,  leader  or  failure 
among  men  —  would  stand  out  alone;  crowned  or  humil- 
iated, but  anyhow  clear  and  final  to  himself  and  to  others. 

Much  missionary  work  is  just  now  in  very  responsive  fields. 
It  is  often  said  there  is  less  response  to  the  ministry  than  for- 
merly. Church  decadence  is  a  favorite  magazine  topic.  We 
are  even  told  the  world  has  outgrown  the  need  for  the  minis- 
try. Science,  philosophy  and  psychology  take  its  place. 
The  Sunday  paper  is  a  strong  competitor  of  the  pulpit. 
We  are  told  metropolitan  churches  have  a  hard  time.  Crit- 
icism now  takes  the  place  of  response.  The  intellectual 
level  of  the  congregation  has  overflowed  the  pulpit  platform. 

I  do  not  think  these  strictures  are  very  true.  The  hunger 
of  the  heart  for  God  still  remains.  And  it  asserts  itself.  Per- 
haps not  quite  in  the  old  ways,  but  psychic  circles,  spiritual 
manifestations,  mind  cure,  and  Christian  Science  are  the 
ways  of  a  new  fanaticism  by  which  the  claim  of  the  eternal 
finds  strange  expression. 

But  none  of  these  strictures  hold  on  the  mission  field. 

155 


j^cCormtcft  Cfjeological  ^cminarp 

There  at  least  the  old,  old  story,  which  in  all  ages  has  made 
the  romance  of  missions,  keeps  its  charm. 

You  will  note  the  signs  of  it  in  the  awakening  of  nations. 
As  a  man  half-awake  cannot  locate  himself,  so  these  waking 
peoples  cannot  utter  their  longing,  do  not  even  know  what 
it  means.  But  it  is  the  cry  of  the  human  to  be  led  out,  out 
of  their  darkness  and  doubt,  somewhither,  they  know  not 
where. 

You  can  hear  it  in  the  slumberous  throes  of  the  Chinese 
giant;  in  the  sharp  inquiries  of  the  Japanese  Yankee;  in  the 
rebellious  attitude  of  India;  even  in  the  blind  gropings  of 
Africa. 

You  remember  the  story  of  Stanley's  march  through  the 
black  forest  of  Africa,  how  long  and  dark  and  desperate  was 
the  way.  And  when  a  shaft  of  light  told  them  they  were 
coming  into  sunshine  the  natives  fell  down  and  kissed  the 
ground  where  the  blessed  daylight  fell. 

The  nations  are  on  their  faces  to  kiss  the  shaft  that  tells 
of  an  end  to  their  night.  And  they  are  calling,  not  for  a 
church  nor  a  cult,  but  a  leader. 

And  nearer  home  the  response  is  the  same.  Any  sky 
pilot  in  the  West,  who  is  such  in  fact,  will  not  fail  of  a  fol- 
lowing. And  even  in  the  turbulence  of  our  great  popula- 
tion, seething,  swaying  in  moral  and  economic  unrest  and 
protest,  a  real  leader  they  will  obey. 

When  the  tidings  of  Lincoln's  assassination  brought  a 
whirlwind  of  half-crazed  people  surging  down  Wall  Street, 
Garfield,  from  the  steps  of  the  custom-house,  cried  out  with 
uplifted  hands,  "God  reigns  and  the  Government  is  safe." 
Then  the  surging  mob  fell  to  quiet. 

156 


Heatier^Ijip  in  J^i^^ton^ 


I  know  dangers  threaten  where  maelstroms  of  passion 
whirl  unthinking  multitudes  around,  but  I  know  also  the 
strong  man  with  a  mighty  message  can  still  control. 

This,  then,  is  the  call  of  the  hour,  in  our  great  capitals, 
in  our  new  communities,  among  alien  races,  at  home  or 
abroad,  "Give  us  men,  God's  men,  with  God's  message, 
and  courage  to  march  on."  The  distinctive  gospel  designa- 
tion of  Christians  is  "followers."  That  suggests  move- 
ment and  a  leader  at  the  head  of  the  column.  The  invis- 
ible Leader  will  not  fail  to  lead  on  if  His  deputies  on  earth 
take  their  proper  place. 

All  the  world  loves  a  leader,  loves  and  will  follow.  This 
is  the  day  of  a  great  campaign  for  Jesus  Christ.  It  is  the 
opportunity  for  ministers  who  dare  to  lead  on. 

"  Bring  those  colors  back  to  the  line, "  said  the  officer  to 
the  color-bearer  who  had  rushed  far  ahead. 

"  Bring  up  the  line  to  the  colors, "  was  the  heroic  response. 

The  line  will  follow  if  the  standard  bearer  dares. 


157 


f  fjStorfcal  Celebmtion  1S29-1909 

THE   CHURCH   OF   THE   COVENANT,   TUESDAY   EVENING, 
NOVEMBER   SECOND,   NINETEEN   HUNDRED 
AND   NINE 


ORDER    OF   EXERCISES 


THE    REV.    JAMES   M.    BARKLEY, 

Moderator  of  the  General  Assembly 
Presiding 


D.  D. 


Processional 


Organ 


Hymn 


The  Church's  one  Foundation, 

Is  Jesus  Christ  her  Lord ; 
She  is  His  new  creation 

By  water  and  the  word: 
From  heaven  He  came  and  sought  her 

To  be  His  holy  Bride; 
With  His  own  blood  He  bought  her, 

And  for  her  life  He  died. 

Elect  from  every  nation, 

Yet  one  o'er  all  the  earth. 
Her  charter  of  salvation 

One  Lord,  one  faith,  one  birth ; 
One  holy  Name  she  blesses, 

Partakes  one  holy  food, 
And  to  one  hope  she  presses 

With  every  grace  endued. 
159 


jKcCojcmtcft  Ctjeologicai  ^eminarp 

Though  with  a  scornful  wonder 

Men  see  her  sore  oppressed, 
By  schisms  rent  asunder, 

By  heresies  distressed. 
Yet  saints  their  watch  are  keeping. 

Their  cry  goes  up,  "How  long?" 
And  soon  the  night  of  weeping 

Shall  be  the  morn  of  song. 

'Mid  toil  and  tribulation, 

And  tumult  of  her  war, 
She  waits  the  consummation 

Of  peace  for  evermore ; 
Till  with  the  vision  glorious 

Her  longing  eyes  are  blest, 
And  the  great  Church  victorious 

Shall  be  the  Church  at  rest. 

Scripture  Lesson Isaiah   Ix 

President  James  A.  Kelso,  Ph.  D.,  D.  D., 

Western  Theological  Seminary 

The  Favorite  Hymn  of  Cyrus  H.  McCormick 

SEMINARY  DOUBLE  QUARTETTE 

O  Thou,  in  whose  presence  my  soul  takes  delight. 

On  whom  in  affliction  I  call. 
My  comfort  by  day,  and  my  song  in  the  night. 

My  hope,  my  salvation,  my  all. 

Where  dost  Thou,  dear  Shepherd,  resort  with  Thy  sheep. 

To  feed  them  in  pastures  of  love  ? 
Say,  why  in  the  valley  of  death  should  I  weep. 

Or  alone  in  this  wilderness  rove  ? 

O  why  should  I  wander  an  alien  from  Thee, 

Or  cry  in  the  desert  for  bread? 
Thy  foes  will  rejoice  when  my  sorrow  they  see, 

And  smile  at  the  tears  I  have  shed. 
i6o 


J^i^totical  Celefiration 


He  looks!  and  ten  thousands  of  angels  rejoice, 

And  myriads  wait  for  His  word ; 
He  speaks!  and  eternity,  filled  with  His  voice, 

Re-echoes  the  praise  of  the  Lord. 

Prayer  .        .        Professor   Robert  Dick  Wilson,   Ph.   D.,  D.  D., 

Princeton  Theological  Seminary 

Anthem,  "Sanctus" Gounod 

SEMINARY  DOUBLE  QUARTETTE 

Address.         .         .    President  Woodrow  Wilson,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

Princeton  University 

"The  Ministry  and  The  Individual." 

McCoRMiCK  Seminary  Hymn 

1.  We  praise  thee,  Old  McCormick  fair; 

Thy  glorious  record  bright 
Inspires  our  hearts  and  quickens  hope 
To  energy  and  might. 

Refrain 

O  may  thy  men  be  men  of  God, 

With  armor  fitted  on. 
Ready  to  fight  both  fire  and  sword, 

As  princes  heaven  born. 

2.  Thy  name  is  known  in  many  lands, 

Thy  prestige  is  secure. 
For  forth  from  thee  in  years  now  past 
Have  gone  youth  brave  and  pure. — Ref. 

3.  Thy  standards  have  been  high  and  true, 

Thy  preceptors  upright. 
Thy  guiding  star  hath  been  the  Word 
Illumined  by  The  Light.  —  Ref. 

161 


0it€ntmith  €f)eDlogxcal  J>eminarp 

4.  Kindled  with  fire  that  came  from  God, 

Whose  incense  fills  thy  halls, 
Thy  sons  have  gone  like  beacons  bright 
To  shine  where'er  He  calls.  —  Ref. 

5.  Accept  this  tribute  that  we  bring, 

Accept,  O  God,  our  prayers. 
And  justify  our  largest  hopes 

In  lifting  this  world's  cares.  —  Ref. 

C.  L.  Oglivie,  '09 

Benediction.         .         .         .    President  Matthew  B.  Lowrie,  D.  D., 

Omaha  Theological  Seminary 


Recessional 


.     Organ 


162 


Cl^e  ^inimv  anti  ti^e  3!nti(t(tiual 

BY  PRESIDENT  WOODROW  WILSON,  Ph.  D.,  LL.  D. 

MR.  CHAIRMAN,  ladies  and  gentlemen:  I  feel  that 
it  is  a  privilege  and  a  responsibility  to  bring  this 
interesting  program  to  a  close,  particularly  when  I  know 
how  simple  the  message  I  bring  to  you  will  turn  out  to  be. 

It  seems  singular  that  each  generation  should  ask  itself 
for  what  purpose  the  gospel  had  come  into  the  world,  and 
yet  it  is  necessary,  if  we  would  understand  our  own  purposes, 
that  we  should  ask  ourselves  in  our  own  generation  that 
fundamental  question.  No  doubt  Christianity  came  into 
the  world  to  save  the  world.  We  are  privileged  to  live  in 
the  midst  of  many  manifestations  of  the  great  service  that 
Christianity  does  to  society,  to  the  world  that  now  is.  All 
of  the  finest  things  that  have  made  history  illustrious  seem 
to  have  proceeded  from  the  spirit  of  Christ.  All  those  things 
which  distinguish  modern  civilization  are  things  which  it 
has  derived  from  the  spirit  of  the  church,  which,  when  it 
has  remembered  Christ,  has  reminded  the  world  of  the 
ideals  according  to  which  it  should  serve  mankind,  should 
serve  all  the  ends  for  which  men  live  together;  and  in  our 
own  day  in  particular  there  are  a  great  many  notable  move- 
ments afoot  which  are  manifestly  touched  —  at  their  root, 
at  any  rate  —  with  the  spirit  of  Christ. 

But  Christianity  did  not  come  into  the  world  merely  to 
save  the  world,  merely  to  set  crooked  things  straight,  merely 
to  purify  social  motives,  merely  to  elevate  the  program  ac- 

163 


0it€otmith  Cfjeologxcal  ^eminarp 

cording  to  which  we  live,  merely  to  put  new  illuminations 
into  the  plans  we  form  for  the  regeneration  of  the  life  we  are 
living  now.  The  end  and  object  of  Christianity  is  the  in- 
dividual, and  the  individual  is  the  vehicle  of  Christianity. 
There  can  be  no  other  vehicle;  no  organization  is  in  any 
proper  sense  Christian;  no  organization  can  be  said  itself 
to  love  the  person  and  example  of  Christ.  No  organization 
can  hold  itself  in  that  personal  relationship  to  the  Saviour 
in  which  the  individual  must  hold  himself  if  he  would  be  in- 
deed one  who  lives  according  to  the  Christian  precepts. 

You  know  what  the  distinguishing  characteristic  of  mod- 
em society  is,  that  it  has  submerged  the  individual  as  much  as 
that  is  possible.  In  economic  society  particularly  we  see  men 
organized  in  great  societies  and  corporations  and  organic 
groups,  in  which  each  individual  member  feels  that  his  own 
conscience  is  pooled  and  subordinated,  and  in  co-operating 
with  which  men,  as  you  know,  constantly  excuse  themselves 
from  the  exercise  of  their  own  independent  judgment  in 
matters  of  conscience.  The  great  danger  of  our  own  day, 
as  it  seems  to  me,  is  that  men  will  compound  their  conscien- 
tious scruples  on  the  ground  that  they  are  not  free  to  move 
independently;  that  they  are  simply  parts  of  a  great  whole, 
and  that  they  must  move  with  that  whole,  whether  they 
wish  to  or  not.  For  they  say,  "  The  penalty  will  be  that  we 
shall  be  absolutely  crushed."  The  organization  must  dic- 
tate to  us,  if  we  be  members  of  a  corporation;  if  we  be  mem- 
bers of  a  union,  the  union;  if  we  be  members  of  a  society  of 
whatever  kind,  the  program  of  the  society  must  dominate 
us.  It  was  easy  in  a  simpler  age  to  apply  morals  to  in- 
dividual conduct,  because  individuals  acted  separately  and 

164 


€l^e  pimmv  ^nti  tt^t  ^Fntiibibual 


by  a  private  and  individual  choice,  but  we  have  not  adjusted 
our  morals  to  the  present  organization  of  society;  and  what- 
ever you  may  say  in  general  terms  with  regard  to  the  ob- 
ligation of  the  individual  to  exercise  his  own  conscience, 
you  will  find  yourself  very  much  put  to  it  if  a  friend  comes 
to  you  with  an  individual  problem  of  conduct  and  asks 
you  how  in  the  circumstances  you  think  he  ought  to  act. 

It  sometimes  seems  like  a  choice  between  breaking  up 
the  program  of  the  organization  and  subordinating  your 
own  conscience.  I  have  had  men  tell  me  who  were  in  the 
profession  to  which  I  was  originally  bred  —  the  profession  of 
the  law  —  that  it  is  extremely  dilEficult  to  thread  their  way 
amidst  a  thousand  complicated  difficulties  in  giving  advice 
to  the  great  bodies  of  men  whom  they  are  called  upon  to 
advise,  and  to  discriminate  between  what  is  legally  safe  and 
what  is  morally  justifiable. 

It  is  in  this  age  that  the  preacher  must  preach.  The 
preacher  must  find  the  individual  and  enable  the  individual 
to  find  himself,  and  in  order  to  do  that  he  must  understand 
and  thread  the  intricacies  or  modem  society. 

It  was  my  privilege  to  speak  upon  a  similar  occasion 
to  this,  not  many  months  ago,  and  there  to  take  as  my  theme 
the  necessity  the  minister  is  under  to  enable  the  individual 
to  find  himself  amid  the  intricacies  of  modem  thought.  This 
is  an  age  of  obscured  counsel  about  many  fundamental 
things,  and  the  average  individual  cannot  unassisted  know 
his  place  in  the  spiritual  order  of  the  universe  as  it  is  now  in- 
terpreted by  multitudinous  and  differing  voices.  The  min- 
ister has  the  very  difficult  and  responsible  task  of  enabling  the 
individual  to  find  himself  amidst  modem  thought.     This 

165 


i^cCormxcft  Cf^eological  ^eminatp 

evening  I  must  call  your  attention  to  the  fact  that  it  is  also 
his  business  to  enable  the  individual  to  find  himself  amid 
modem  action.  There  are  daily  choices  to  be  made,  and 
the  individual  must  make  them  at  the  risk  of  the  integrity 
of  his  own  soul.  He  must  understand  that  he  cannot  shift 
the  responsibility  upon  the  organization.  The  minister 
must  address  himself  to  him  as  his  counselor  and  friend 
and  spiritual  companion;  they  must  take  counsel  together 
how  a  man  is  to  live  with  uplifted  head  and  pure  conscience 
in  our  own  complicated  age,  not  allowing  the  crowd  to  run 
away  with  or  over  him. 

You  know  that  the  law  has  shirked  this  duty.  Sooner 
or  later  the  duty  must  be  faced.  The  law  tries  nowadays 
to  deal  with  men  in  groups  and  companies,  to  punish  them 
as  corporate  wholes.  It  is  an  idle  undertaking.  It  never 
will  be  successfully  accomplished.  The  only  responsibility 
to  which  human  society  has  ever  responded  or  ever  will 
respond,  is  the  responsibility  of  the  individual.  The  law 
must  find  the  individual  in  the  modern  corporation  and 
apply  its  demands  and  its  punishments  to  him  if  we  are  to 
check  any  of  the  vital  abuses  which  now  trouble  the  world 
of  business.  You  may  pile  fines  never  so  high  in  the  public 
treasury,  and  corporations  will  still  continue  to  do  things 
that  they  ought  not  to  do,  unless  you  check  them  by  taking 
hold  of  the  individuals  who  are  ultimately  responsible  for 
their  policy.  While  the  law  waits  to  find  this  out,  the  min- 
ister cannot  wait.  He  must  attempt  and  must  accomplish 
what  the  law  declines,  for  men  are  dying  every  day.  They 
are  going  to  their  long  reckoning.  They  cannot  wait  for 
the   law   to   find   the  way  of   the  gospel.     The   minister 

i66 


I 


€1)0  piinmtv  an^  t^e  ^Pntiibitiual 

must  be  present  with  them  while  they  live,  and  comfort  them 
when  they  die,  and  reassure  them  of  the  standards  of  their 
conduct. 

Every  great  age  of  the  world  of  which  I  have  ever  heard 
was  an  age  not  characterized  chiefly  by  co-operative  effort, 
but  characterized  chiefly  by  the  initiative  of  the  indomita- 
ble individual.  You  cannot  give  any  age  distinction  by 
the  things  that  everybody  does.  Each  age  derives  its  dis- 
tinction from  the  things  that  individuals  choose  to  be  singu- 
lar in  doing  of  their  own  choice.  Every  turning  point  in 
the  history  of  mankind  has  been  pivoted  upon  the  choice 
of  an  individual,  when  some  spirit  that  would  not  be  domi- 
nated stood  stiff  in  its  independence  and  said:  "I  go  this 
way.     Let  any  man  go  another  way  who  pleases. " 

We  die  separately.  We  do  not  die  by  corporations.  We 
do  not  die  by  societies.  We  do  not  withdraw  into  our  closets 
by  companies.  Every  man  has  to  live  with  himself  privately 
—  and  it  is  a  most  uncomfortable  life.  He  has  to  remember 
what  he  did  during  the  day,  the  things  that  he  yielded  to, 
the  points  that  he  compromised,  the  things  that  he  shrugged 
his  shoulders  at  and  let  go  by  when  he  knew  that  he  ought  to 
have  uttered  a  protest  and  stood  stiff  in  declining  to  co- 
operate. And  this  lonely  dying  is  the  confession  of  our 
consciousness  that  we  are  individually  and  separately  and 
personally  related  to  the  ideals  which  we  pursue,  and  to  the 
persons  to  whom  we  should  stand  loyal.  Corporations  do  not 
and  cannot  love  Christ.  Some  individuals  that  compose 
them  do,  but  those  individuals  do  not  love  him  truly  who  co- 
operate in  doing  the  things  that  those  associated  with  them 
do  that  are  inconsistent  with  the  law  of  Christ. 

167 


i^c€ormicft  €l^eolagical  ^eminatp 

I  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  preaching,  and  I  have  heard 
most  of  it  with  respect ;  but  I  have  heard  a  great  deal  of  it 
with  disappointment,  because  I  felt  that  it  had  nothing  to 
do  with  me.  So  many  preachers  whom  I  hear  use  the  gospel 
in  order  to  expound  some  of  the  difficulties  of  modern  thought, 
but  only  now  and  again  does  a  minister  direct  upon  me  per- 
sonally the  raking  fire  of  examination,  which  consists  in 
taking  out  of  the  Scriptures  individual,  concrete  examples 
of  men  situated  as  I  suppose  myself  to  be  situated,  and  search- 
ing me  with  the  question,  "  How  are  you  individually  measur- 
ing up  to  the  standard  which  in  Holy  Writ  we  know  to  have 
been  exacted  of  this  man  and  that?" 

I  am  one  of  those  who  remember  with  a  great  deal  of 
admiration  the  work  of  that  extraordinary  man,  Mr.  Moody. 
He  was  not  a  learned  man,  as  you  know,  and  the  doctrine 
that  he  preached  was  always  doctrine  which  seemed  to  have 
inevitably  something  personal  to  do  with  you  if  you  were  in 
the  audience.  Whenever  I  came  into  contact  with  Mr. 
Moody  I  got  the  impression  that  he  was  coming  separately 
into  contact  with  one  person  at  a  time.  I  remember  once 
that  I  was  in  a  very  plebeian  place.  I  was  in  a  barber  shop, 
lying  in  a  chair,  and  I  was  presently  aware  that  a  personality 
had  entered  the  room.  A  man  came  quietly  in  upon  the 
same  errand  that  I  had  come  in  on,  and  sat  in  the  chair 
next  to  me.  Every  word  that  he  uttered,  though  it  was  not 
in  the  least  didactic,  showed  a  personal  and  vital  interest  in 
the  man  who  was  serving  him.  Before  I  got  through  with 
what  was  being  done  to  me  I  was  aware  that  I  had  attended 
an  evangehcal  service,  because  Mr.  Moody  was  in  the  next 
chair.    I  purposely  lingered  in  the  room  after  he  left  and 

i68 


€l)e  JWini^trp  anli  tl)e  ^Fnliibitiual 

noted  the  singular  effect  his  visit  had  upon  the  barbers  in  that 
shop.  They  talked  in  undertones.  They  did  not  know  his 
name.  They  did  not  know  who  had  been  there,  but  they 
knew  that  something  had  elevated  their  thought.  I  left 
the  place  as  I  should  have  left  a  place  of  worship.  Mr. 
Moody  always  sought  and  found  the  individual,  and  that 
is  the  particular  thing  which  the  minister  must  do. 

As  I  see  the  opportunity  of  the  church,  it  is  to  assist  in 
bringing  in  another  great  age.  Ministers  are  not  going  to 
assist  very  much  in  solving  the  social  problems  of  the  time, 
as  such.  Their  attitude  toward  the  social  problems  of  the 
time  is  always  supposed  to  be  a  professional  attitude,  and  they 
are  not  of  as  much  assistance  in  that  matter  as  the  average 
serious-minded  layman  is.  But  the  opportunity  of  the 
church  is  to  call  in  tones  that  cannot  be  mistaken  to  every 
individual  to  think  of  his  own  place  in  the  world  and  his  own 
responsibility,  and  to  resist  the  temptations  of  his  particular 
life  in  such  ways  that  if  he  be  central  to  anything  the  whole 
world  will  feel  the  thrill  of  the  fact  that  there  is  one  immov- 
able thing  in  it,  a  moral  principle  embodied  in  a  particular 
man. 

This  is  an  age  of  conformity.  It  is  an  age  when  every- 
body goes  about  seeking  to  say  what  everybody  else  is  saying. 
Winds  of  opinion  creep  through  the  country.  Formulas 
are  repeated  with  all  sorts  of  dexterity  in  their  mere  vari- 
ation. Men  have  caught  the  gregarious  habit  of  con- 
science as  well  as  of  mind,  and  you  will  l&nd  that  nothiiig 
heartens  an  audience  in  a  modern  age  more  than  to  hear  an 
individual,  whether  he  has  anything  new  to  say  or  not,  get 
up  and  say  something  that  he  really  means,  singly  and  by 

169 


;^c€0tmicft  €ljeDlogicaI  J^cmtnarp 

himself,  without  the  least  care  whether  anybody  else  thinks 
it  and  means  it  or  not.  A  friend  of  mine  who  was  of  such  a 
sort  was  congratulated  for  his  courage  in  speaking  the  things 
that  he  really  thought.  He  said:  "Why,  I  am  not  aware  of 
any  courage.  It  would  take  courage  to  do  the  other  thing. 
If  I  said  the  things  I  did  not  mean,  I  would  say  very  contra- 
dictory things  at  different  times;  I  would  get  all  tied  up,  and 
I  should  not  know  how  to  get  out. "  The  only  way  to  avoid 
that  is  by  echoing  everything  else  that  everybody  else  says. 
There  was  a  cynical  saying  of  Dean  Swift's,  "If  you  wish  to 
be  considered  a  man  of  sense,  always  agree  with  the  person 
with  whom  you  are  conversing."  That  is  a  very  modem, 
and  also,  I  dare  say,  a  very  ancient  way  of  gaining  a  reputation 
of  being  a  man  of  sense.  But  it  is  practiced  at  the  peril  of 
your  soul,  which  is  a  consideration  worth  thinking  of. 

I  have  often  preached  in  my  political  utterances  the 
doctrine  of  expediency,  and  I  am  an  unabashed  disciple  of 
that  doctrine.  What  I  mean  to  say  is,  you  cannot  carry  the 
world  forward  as  fast  as  a  few  select  individuals  think.  The 
individuals  who  have  the  vigor  to  lead  must  content  them- 
selves with  a  slackened  pace  and  go  only  so  fast  as  they  can 
be  followed.  They  must  not  be  impracticable.  They 
must  not  be  impossible.  They  must  not  insist  upon  getting 
at  once  what  they  know  they  cannot  get.  But  that  is  not 
inconsistent  with  their  telling  the  world  in  very  plain  terms 
whither  it  is  bound  and  what  the  ultimate  and  complete 
truth  of  the  matter,  as  it  seems  to  them,  is.  You  cannot 
make  any  progress  unless  you  know  whither  you  are  bound. 
The  question  is  not  of  pace.  That  is  a  matter  of  expediency, 
not  of  direction;  that  is  not  a  matter  of  principle.     Where 

170 


the  individual  should  be  indomitable  is  in  the  choice  of  di- 
rection, saying:  "I  will  not  bow  down  to  the  golden  calf  of 
fashion.  I  will  not  bow  down  to  the  weak  habit  of  pursuing 
everything  that  is  popular,  everything  that  belongs  to  the  so- 
ciety to  which  I  belong.  I  will  insist  on  telling  that  socie- 
ty, if  I  think  it  so,  that  in  certain  fundamental  principles  it 
is  wrong;  but  I  won't  be  fool  enough  to  insist  that  it  adopt 
my  program  at  once  for  putting  it  right."  What  I  do  in- 
sist upon  is,  speaking  the  full  truth  to  it  and  never  letting 
it  forget  the  truth;  speaking  the  truth  again  and  again  and 
again  with  every  variation  of  the  theme,  until  men  will  wake 
some  morning  and  the  theme  will  sound  familiar,  and  they 
will  say,  "Well,  after  all,  is  it  not  so?"  That  is  what 
I  mean  by  the  indomitable  individual.  Not  the  defiant 
individual,  not  the  impracticable  individual,  but  the  individ- 
ual who  does  try,  and  cannot  be  ashamed,  and  cannot  be 
silenced;  who  tries  to  observe  the  fair  manner  of  just  speech 
but  who  will  not  hold  his  tongue. 

That  is  the  duty  of  the  preacher.  I  have  noticed  that 
there  is  one  sort  of  preaching  in  simple  congregations  and 
sometimes  a  different  sort  of  preaching  in  congregations  that 
are  not  simple.  Now  there  cannot  be  two  gospels.  There 
cannot  be  two  ways  in  which  individuals  shall  save  them- 
selves. And  the  minister  ought  to  see  to  it  that  with  infinite 
gentleness,  but  with  absolute  fearlessness,  every  man  is 
made  to  conform  to  the  standards  which  are  set  up  in  the 
gospel,  even  though  it  cost  him  his  reputation,  even  though 
it  cost  him  his  friends,  even  though  it  cost  him  his  Hfe. 
Then  will  come  that  moral  awakening  which  we  have  been 
so  long  predicting,  and  for  which  we  have  so  long  waited; 

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;|^c€ormicft  Cfteological  .^cminarp 

that  rejuvenation  of  morals  which  comes  when  morals  are 
a  fresh  and  personal  and  individual  thing  for  every  man  and 
woman  in  every  community;  when  the  church  will  seem, 
not  like  an  organization  for  the  propagation  of  doctrine, 
but  like  an  organization  made  up  of  individuals  every  one 
of  whom  is  vital  in  the  processes  of  life. 

I  remember  attending  recently  a  missionary  conference 
in  which  we  were  all  heartened  with  the  plans  that  were 
being  formed  for  bringing  all  the  denominations  in  the  mis- 
sionary field  together  in  a  common  effort.  After  all  the 
speeches  had  been  made  and  we  had  dispersed  and  I  was 
going  home  in  the  night,  I  thought:  "This  is  a  very  beau- 
tiful thing  that  is  about  to  happen  in  the  mission  field.  But 
I  hope  that  after  it  has  happened  there  the  people  who  are 
being  evangelized  will  not  come  here  and  see  us,  because  I 
should  not  like  to  have  them  think  we  could  do  that  thing 
away  from  home  and  could  not  do  it  at  home.  I  should 
not  like  to  have  them  think  that  we  are  divided  in  our  Chris- 
tianity where  we  live  and  maintain  the  civilization  of  a  Chris- 
tian nation,  and  are  united  only  among  those  upon  whom 
we  look  with  a  certain  condescension,  as  if  they  could  not 
understand  our  difi'erences  of  doctrine,  and  therefore  they 
were  not  worthy  the  explanation."  It  is,  I  suppose,  a  high 
intellectual  plane  upon  which  we  think  that  we  Hve,  but  we 
do  not  live  upon  intellectual  planes  at  all;  we  live  upon 
emotional  planes;  we  live  upon  planes  of  resolution  and  not 
upon  planes  of  doctrine,  if  I  may  put  it  so.  And  the  reason 
that  we  differ  so  is  that  we  hold  ourselves  too  far  above  the 
practical  levels  of  life  and  are  constantly  forgetting  that  the 
whole  vitality  of  Christianity  consists  not  in  its  texts,  but  in 

172 


€1)0  0ixni^ttp  anb  tl^e  ^fntiibiDual 

their  translation;  not  in  the  things  that  we  set  up  as  the  ab- 
stract standard,  but  in  the  actions  which  we  originate  as  the 
concrete  examples. 

You  will  see,  therefore,  that  there  is  a  sense  in  which  the 
minister  is  set  against  modern  society.  Modern  society  is 
collectivist.  It  says  "  Unite. "  The  minister  must  say :  "  Not 
so.  You  can  unite  for  certain  temporal  purposes,  but  you 
cannot  merge  your  souls;  and  Christianity,  come  what  may, 
must  be  fundamentally  and  forever  individualistic."  For 
my  part,  I  do  not  see  any  promise  of  vitality  either  in  the 
church  or  in  society  except  upon  the  true  basis  of  individual- 
ism. A  nation  is  strong  in  proportion  to  the  variety  of  its 
originative  strength,  and  that  is  in  proportion  to  the  vitality 
of  its  individuals.  It  is  rich  in  direct  proportion  to  the 
independence  of  the  souls  of  which  it  is  made  up.  And  so 
every  promising  scheme  that  unites  us  must  still  be  illumi- 
nated and  checked  and  offset  by  those  eternal  principles 
of  individual  responsibility  which  are  repeated  not  only  in 
the  gospel  but  in  human  nature,  in  physical  nature. 

You  have  loved  some  person  very  dearly.  You  have 
tried  to  merge  your  individuality  with  that  person,  and  you 
have  never  succeeded.  There  is  no  person  linked  spirit- 
ually so  closely  to  you  that  you  can  share  his  individuality 
or  he  can  share  yours.  And  this  inexorable  law,  physical 
and  spiritual,  is  the  law  which  must  be  the  guiding  fact  for 
the  minister  of  the  gospel.  He  must  preach  Christianity  to 
men,  not  to  society.  He  must  preach  salvation  to  the  indi- 
vidual, for  it  is  only  one  by  one  that  we  can  love,  and  love  is 
the  law  of  life.  And  the  only  person  living  through  whom 
we  shall  love  is  our  Lord  and  Saviour,  Jesus  Christ. 

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PRINTED  BY  R.  R.  DONNELLEY 
AND  SONS  COMPANY,  AT  THE 
LAKESIDE  PRESS,  CHICAGO,  ILL. 


